Danish Sofa by Ole Wanscher for Fritz Hansen, 1940s

Born in Copenhagen in 1903, Danish architect-designer Ole Wanscher was a key player in Denmark's midcentury modern movement. In the postwar era, the simple and refined aesthetic he achieved by reinventing classic forms helped define Scandinavian design, and many of his pieces became staples in Scandinavian homes.

Wanscher studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts under famous architect-designer Kaare Klint (1888-1954). Upon graduating, Wanscher worked with Klint from 1924 to 1927 and, after Klint passed away, Wanscher was given Klint's professorship at the academy —a position he held until he retired in 1973.

In 1927, Wanscher opened his own architecture firm, specializing in furniture design. Like Klint, Wanscher disagreed with the modernist full-sail rejection of the past and preferred to explore classic yet minimal aesthetics informed by precise study of the human body. Wanscher was also heavily influenced by Greek, Chinese, and Egyptian designs—which he encountered during his many travels abroad—as well as proto-modernist movements, like the Viennese Secession, Biedermeier, and Shaker styles.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, Wanscher enjoyed fruitful collaborations with small-scale, artisanal cabinetmakers, like the masterful A. J. Iversen (1888-1979), as well as well as larger-scale Danish companies, such as France & Søn, Fritz Hansen, Poul Jeppesen, and Rud Rasmussen. With Iversen, he created the iconic Ladies Desk (1954) and Egyptian Stool (1957). Other standout Wanscher designs include the PJ-149 Colonial Chair (1949), Rungstedlund Dining Chair (ca. 1950), and PJ-112 Sofa (1951) for Poul Jeppesen; as well as the 110 Rocking Chair (1951) and Senator Easy Chair (1951) for France & Søn .

Wanscher went on to write various articles and publish several books on design history, such as The History of the Arts of Furniture (1956) and Five Thousand Years of Furniture (1967).

Although less known than many of his contemporaries—Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner, Poul Henningsen, and so on—Wanscher made a strong impression on many important critics. In 1958, Sven Erik Moller wrote in Danish newspaper Politiken: "If one owns a chair by Wanscher, it will be an experience every day—perhaps for hundreds of years, because that is how long it will last. One senses the man behind the chair and the value of man-made work…" And in 2003, famous New York Times art critic Roberta Smith commented: "He combined fully and equally the talents of a master craftsman, designer, and sculptor with those of a historian. In particular, his sensitivity to the luster and living delicacy of wood enabled him to bring organic life and a rich sense of the past to the indelibly modern spareness of the International Style."

Wanscher passed away in 1985. Many of Wanscher's design remain in production with Carl Hansen & Søn.

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.