Armchair by Aksel Bender Madsen for Fritz Hansen, 1950s

Danish designer-cabinetmaker Aksel Bender Madsen (1916-2000) created a number of classic midcentury designs in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, often working jointly with his business partner and friend Ejner Larsen (1917-1987).

Bender Madsen (as he is usually referred) trained as a cabinetmaker before spending four years studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1940. It was there that he met his lifelong friend Larsen, with whom he would work throughout his career. The pair designed over 300 pieces of furniture together until Larsen’s death in 1987, often working with cabinetmaker Willy Beck, who produced their designs over a 25-year period. Larsen and Bender Madsen participated annually in the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild competitions from 1947, and their work was exhibited at the Triennale di Milano and in the Design in Scandinavia exhibition, which traveled across the US. from 1954 to 1957.

Larsen and Bender Madsen's most famous design, namely the Metropolitan Chair, was developed in 1949 and produced from 1950; its name came from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was shown and acquired for the Arts of Denmark exhibition in 1960-61. Upholstered in saddle leather, the Metropolitan Chair is an elegant example of organic Danish modern design.

Before he began working with Larsen, Bender Madsen worked for Danish icons Kaare Klint and Arne Jacobsenfrom 1940 to 1943. While designing furniture, he also worked simultaneously as an architect for the Danish Consumers Cooperative Society (1943-1950) and as a teacher and principal at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1950-54).

Bender Madsen was committed to building the Danish design identity and exporting Scandinavian style. He introduced a clear Danish aesthetic to the Dutch brand Bovenkamp in the 1950s and 1960s, who also worked with fellow Arne Vodder. Bender Madsen designs for Bovenkamp feature many models of easy chairs and armchairs, including the low-backed Edith and the high-backed Karen (circa 1950).

Together Bender Madsen and Larsen received many awards, including winning the prestigious Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Annual Prize in 1956 and 1961. Their furniture is housed in museums around world, including the aforementioned Met Museum and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark.

Danish cabinetmaker Fritz Hansen founded his eponymous furniture manufacturing company with his son Christian in Copenhagen in 1885. The first three decades were dedicated to hand-making wood and iron frames for upholstered furniture. In 1915, however, Christian began to introduce industrial processes, such as steam-bending wood, which enabled the family business to mass-produce at a larger scale.

In 1932, Christian brought in his own sons, Fritz and Søren, who updated the product line to include more modernist styles, like Søren’s Thonet-inspired DAN Chair (1930) and a cantilevered wicker and tubular steel chair by architect Mogens Lassen (1933). Other early classics in the Fritz Hansen catalog include Kaare Klint’s Church Chair (1936), Hans Wegner’s China Chair (1944), and Børge Mogensen’s Spoke Back Sofa (1945).

During the 1950s—thanks especially to the contributions of architect Arne Jacobsen—Fritz Hansen entered its golden era, creating some of the most iconic Scandinavian designs of the 20th century. Arne Jacobsen’s Ant Chair (1952), Swan Sofa (1958) and Egg Chair & Ottoman (1958), as well as later designs by Verner Panton, Piet Hein, and Grete Jalk, all helped to cement Fritz Hansen’s legacy as one of the most beloved producers of high quality, simple-yet-elegant, Danish modern furniture.

In 1979, after 107 years of family ownership, Fritz Hansen was bought out by Skandinavisk Holding and is now known as The Republic of Fritz Hansen. Pieces from the company’s long history can be found in nearly every design museum collection there is, from MoMA and Cooper Hewitt in New York to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Arne Jacobsen’s collaboration with Fritz Hansen was the subject of the Siéntate Siéntete exhibition, hosted by the Chamber of Architects in Madrid in 2010.  

* All images courtesy of Republic of Fritz Hansen.