The Danish Golden Age

After war and state bankruptcy the arts flourished, and middle-class homes got simple, well-proportioned furniture.

Copenhagen burned in 1795 and was bombarded in 1807, and the state went bankrupt in 1813. Yet the period is called the Golden Age, for art, literature and philosophy flourished. The architect C. F. Hansen rebuilt the city in austere classicism, and the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was famous throughout Europe.

The furniture was simple, with straight lines and mahogany or light woods, in a Danish version of Empire and Biedermeier. Later Danish designers, such as Kaare Klint, saw Golden Age furniture as a model of good proportion.