Arne Jacobsen

ARNE JACOBSEN was one of Denmark's most influential 20th century architects and designers. Many of Jacobsen's furniture designs have become classic, including the Ant chair from 1952 and the Swan and the Egg chair which were both designed for the Radisson SAS Hotel. Jacobsen is, however, perhaps best known for the Model 3107 chair of 1955, known also as the Number 7 Chair which has sold over 5 million copies Both his buildings and products, combine modernist ideals with a Nordic love of naturalism.

Arne Jacobsen began training as a mason before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen where he won a silver medal for a chair that was then exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Art Decoratifs in Paris. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Gunnar Asplund and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Jacobsen embraced a functionalist approach from the outset. He was among the first to introduce modernist ideas to Denmark and create industrial furniture that built upon on its craft-based design heritage.

From the 1950s onwards Jacobsen, or "the fat man" as he was called, was the dominant figure in Danish architecture, but outside Denmark he made his mark as a furniture and product designer. As well as the Swan chair, Egg chair and Series 7 chair, he was responsible for another 20th century classic, the Cylinda Line stainless steel cocktail kit and tableware which he designed in the late 1960s for Stelton, a company run by his foster son Peter Holmblad. Jacobsen spent three years finessing the project and finally produced a collection of 17 objects for Stelton, all based on the shape of a cylinder. When the Cylinda Line was launched, sales were so poor that Holmblad sent his wife into the Copenhagen department stores to place orders for it. The Cylinda Line then went on to win numerous international design awards, although the abstemious Jacobsen insisted on using the Martini mixer for hot soup.

During the 1960's, Jacobsen's most important work was a unified architectural and interior design scheme for St. Catherine's College, Oxford, which, like his earlier work for the Royal Hotel, involved the design of site-specific furniture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Months before his death in 1971, Arne Jacobsen reflected on his career. "The fundamental factor is proportion," he concluded. "Proportion is precisely what makes the old Greek temples beautiful...And when we look at some of the most admired buildings of the Renaissance or the Baroque, we notice that they are all well-proportioned. That is the essential thing."