Pair of Mid Century Barrel Lounge Chairs by Jens Risom

Debuting in 1943, the Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll. It was the work of Jens Risom (1916–2016), who had only just moved from his native Denmark to the United States in 1939.

Risom was by then a graduate of business school and had studied under Danish architect and designer Kaare Klint at Copenhagen's School of Industrial Arts and Design (Hans Wegner, whose many iconic creations include the Wishbone chair, was among his classmates). In New York City, Risom found work as an interior designer before embarking on a freelance career as a furniture maker and textile designer when he met Hans Knoll, who was mere months into his venture and needed inventory. In the first Knoll catalogue, 15 of the 25 pieces listed were Risom designs, and the Risom lounge chair would follow a year later.

Owing to the rationing of materials during World War II, Risom turned to surplus parachute straps for use in the construction of his chair, binding the woven straps to a curving birchwood frame. The design was immediately popular for office interiors and is recognized as pivotal to the introduction of understated Danish modernism to the States.

Today, Knoll continues to manufacture the simple but strong Risom lounge chair, and it is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Danish-born Jens Risom brought the Scandinavian modern design sensibility to a wide audience in the United States. As the first designer for Knoll Inc., Risom introduced American buyers to the region’s enduring design values of simplicity, grace and craftsmanship.

Risom trained in furniture making at the Copenhagen School of Industrial Arts and Design under Ole Wanscher, alongside classmates Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen. In 1939, a year after graduating from business school, Risom decided to move to the U.S. 

While working for an interior designer in New York in 1941, he met Hans Knoll, and the businessman and the designer hit it off. They brought out their first line the next year, despite wartime materials restrictions. The signature piece — now a design icon — was a lounge chair with a striking, undulant birch frame and a seat made of webbed sub-military grade parachute straps. Risom was drafted into the army, and served as a translator under General George Patton. When he returned from the war, Risom clashed over furniture design ideals with his business partner’s new bride, Florence Knoll, the pioneering mid-century modernist who was schooled in the Bauhaus method, which favored furniture with strict, geometric metal frames. Risom then started his own company, Jens Risom Design.

In the course of his long career, Risom developed a stylistic vocabulary that was a reflection of the life of the man himself: his furniture has Danish warmth coupled with an American air of crisp efficiency. Vintage Risom chairs are almost instantly recognizable — the arms and seat backs are set at a distinctive angle that seems to invite people to sit back and relax, yet they know they can hop up in an instant, ready to go.

As you will see on these pages, Jens Risom is one of the great men of American modern design who made furniture that is unique and timeless.

Find a collection of vintage Jens Risom furniture on 1stDibs that includes lounge chairs, desks, coffee tables and more.