Famous Danish designers – from Georg Jensen to Verner Panton

The best-known Danish designers are Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Poul Henningsen and Verner Panton from the mid-20th century, and before them the silversmith Georg Jensen and the furniture architect Kaare Klint. The list also includes Thorvald Bindesbøll, Arnold Krog and Johan Rohde around the turn of the century and Jacob Jensen, who designed Bang & Olufsen’s equipment.

Facts

The turn of the century: porcelain and ceramics

Danish design had its first international breakthrough with porcelain. Arnold Krog became artistic director of the Royal Porcelain Factory in Copenhagen in 1885 and developed the underglaze painting in pale blue and grey. His vases with Nordic landscapes won the factory the Grand Prix in Paris in 1889. The factory, Royal Copenhagen, still makes its first pattern, Musselmalet of 1775.

Thorvald Bindesbøll worked with almost everything, from ceramics and silver to the Carlsberg label, and his dishes with bold, almost abstract patterns were far ahead of their time. The Danish counterpart of Art Nouveau is described under skønvirke in Danish design history.

Georg Jensen and silver

Georg Jensen trained as a goldsmith and sculptor and opened his silver workshop in Copenhagen in 1904. His own silver was hand-hammered, with fruit, leaves and birds, such as the Blossom teapot of 1905. The painter Johan Rohde contributed a more austere form, and his cutlery Konge of 1915 has been made ever since.

The workshop grew into an international company and in the 20th century worked with a series of designers, among them the Swede Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe. The silver bears the workshop’s stamp and a model number, and the history of the mark is found under Georg Jensen.

Klint, Henningsen and function

The architect Kaare Klint began teaching at the new furniture school at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1924. He had his students measure people and objects and took as his starting point older types, such as English and Chinese chairs, which he simplified and improved. His method became a foundation of Danish furniture design; the period is described under Klint and the interwar years.

At the same time Poul Henningsen devoted his life to glare-free light. From 1925 he made lamps with several shades for Louis Poulsen, in which the light bounces off a shade before it reaches the eye. The best known, the PH 5 of 1958, hangs over dining tables throughout the Nordic countries. The diagram in the guide to famous designer lamps shows how it works.

Danish Modern: Wegner, Jacobsen and Juhl

After the Second World War Danish furniture design became world-famous. Hans J. Wegner was a trained joiner and designed over 500 chairs, among them the Wishbone Chair of 1950 for Carl Hansen & Søn. Arne Jacobsen was an architect and made moulded chairs such as the Ant and the Series 7 for Fritz Hansen, and for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen he designed everything from the Egg to the cutlery.

Finn Juhl gave furniture sculptural forms and showed it together with the master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder from 1937. His interior for a chamber in the UN building in New York made Danish furniture design known in the United States. The difference between Wegner’s craftsmanship and Jacobsen’s industrial forms is described in the guide to Wegner and Jacobsen, and the era under Danish Modern.

Pop, sound and plastic

Verner Panton worked for Arne Jacobsen before going his own way with strong colours and entire rooms. He dreamed of a chair in a single piece of plastic, and the Panton Chair went into series production in 1967. The same year saw the launch of Jacobsen’s Cylinda Line, jugs and bowls as straight cylinders in brushed stainless steel.

Jacob Jensen gave Bang & Olufsen’s equipment a language of its own: flat forms, brushed aluminium and controls that are almost invisible, like the turntable Beogram 4000 of 1972. And Godtfred Kirk Christiansen patented in 1958 the Lego brick with tubes inside, which made the bricks a system in which everything fits together.

What to look for: the Danish in the form

Danish furniture of the 1950s and 60s is often recognised by solid wood in teak, oak or walnut, carefully shaped joints and seats of woven paper cord or leather. Beneath the seat there is often the maker’s brand or label, which shows who made the chair. Silver from Georg Jensen has the workshop’s stamp, and porcelain from Copenhagen has its three blue waves beneath the base.

More designers can be found throughout Danish design history, and the neighbouring country’s counterpart in the guide to famous Swedish designers. How the Nordic countries together became a concept is described in the guide to Scandinavian design.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Which Danish designer devoted himself to glare-free light and designed the PH lamps for Louis Poulsen?