Hans J. Wegner

Background

Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007) grew up in Tønder in southern Denmark, where his father was a cobbler. He finished a four-year cabinetmaker apprenticeship with H. F. Stahlberg by the age of 18, studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from 1936 to 1938 and showed his first chairs at the Cabinetmakers' Guild exhibition in 1938. With Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller he then worked on the furniture of Aarhus City Hall, and he opened his own studio in 1943.

Signature Style

Carl Hansen & Søn credits him with almost 500 chairs and calls him the master of the chair. It points to precise joinery, respect for wood and an interest in other natural materials such as paper cord; Wikipedia describes the style as Organic Functionality.

Notable Works

• China Chair (Fritz Hansen, 1944) and Peacock Chair (Johannes Hansen, 1947), per Wikipedia
• Round Chair (Johannes Hansen, 1949)
• CH22–CH25 for Carl Hansen & Søn, launched 1950, among them the CH24 Wishbone Chair

Carl Hansen & Søn

Holger Hansen, who ran the company from 1934, proposed in 1949 that Wegner design a chair collection for the factory to make and sell directly. The partnership produced the CH22–CH25 in 1950 and continues today with the Hans J. Wegner Design Studio.

Legacy

Among his awards are the Lunning Prize and the Milan Triennale Grand Prix (both 1951), the Eckersberg Medal (1956) and the C. F. Hansen Medal (1982). MoMA, Designmuseum Danmark and Die Neue Sammlung hold his work.