Exceptional Finn Juhl '57' Sofa

Along with Hans Wegner, Arne Jacobsen and Børge Mogensen, Finn Juhl was one of the great masters of mid-20th-century Danish design. Juhl was the first among that group to have his work promoted overseas, bringing the character of the nation’s furnishings — and the inherent principles of grace, craftsmanship and utility on which they were based — to an international audience. 

A stylistic maverick, Juhl embraced expressive, free-flowing shapes in chair, credenzas and sofa designs much earlier than his colleagues, yet even his quietest pieces incorporate supple, curving forms that are at once elegant and ergonomic.

As a young man, Juhl hoped to become an art historian, but his father steered him into a more practical course of study in architecture. He began designing furniture in the late 1930s, a discipline in which, despite his education, Juhl was self-taught, and quite proud of the fact. 

Juhl’s earliest works, designed in the late 1930s, are perhaps his most idiosyncratic. The influence of modern art is clear in his 1939 Pelican chair: an almost Surrealist take on the classic wing chair. Critics reviled the piece, however; one said it looked like a "tired walrus." Juhl had tempered his creativity by 1945, when the workshop of Danish cabinetmaker Niels Vodder began to issue his designs. Yet Juhl’s now-classic NV 45 armchair still demonstrates panache, with a seat that floats above the chair’s teak frame.

Juhl first exhibited his work in the United States in 1950, championed by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., an influential design critic and scion of America’s most prominent family of modern architecture and design patrons. (Kaufmann’s father commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the house “Fallingwater.”) 

Juhl quickly won a following for such signature designs as the supremely comfortable Chieftan lounge chair, the Judas table — a piece ornamented with stylish inlaid silver plaquettes — and the biomorphic Baker sofa. After an article authored by Kaufmann on Juhl and his work appeared in the U.S.-based magazine Interiors in 1948, he began receiving American commissions. 

Kaufmann commissioned Juhl to create the exhibition design for, and contribute pieces to, the 1951 edition of the Good Design shows he organized for MoMA and Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. Baker Furniture asked Juhl to design for the firm, and he produced a collection of chairs, tables and cabinets, and, later, the 1957 sofa. 

Scandinavian modernist seating, such as the chairs and sofas Juhl created for Baker, became immensely popular in postwar America, as the seeds of the Scandinavian style that Juhl sowed took root and spread in the United States. Juhl and his work featured prominently in the landmark show “Design from Scandinavia,” which opened in 1954 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and traveled to 24 museums in the U.S. and Canada; over three years, it was seen by more than a million people.

Juhl’s furniture — as well as his ceramics, tableware and accessories — has an air of relaxed sophistication and elegance that is unique in the realm of mid-century design.

Find vintage Finn Juhl armchairs, coffee tables, desks and other furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

Onecollection has all the hallmarks of a classic start-up, from its beginnings in a cramped headquarters in co-founder Henrik Sørensen’s mother’s basement to its time in an old van. Out of these modest beginnings, Sørensen and co-founder Ivan Hansen earned the exclusive rights to produce the late Danish modern designer Finn Juhl’s work and now provide design solutions for many institutions, including the United Nations in New York City and the Sino-Danish Center in Beijing.

The early years were not easy financially for Hansen and Sørensen and they stretched what they had to get the most out of it. They used a finicky van to service their operations, including their first small series of furniture and candleholders. The venture earned enough to replace the van and enter the company’s work into the international market at the Scandinavian Furniture Fair in 1991. Their stand was a combination of wood and sand built by Hansen’s father. The fair was the first major collaboration between Hansen and Sørensen and furniture designer Søren Holst. Holst served as a mentor for years, and the trio has had a fruitful partnership.

The pair has also worked with Henrik Tengler, a designer from north of Copenhagen, who partnered with them to produce his conference chair. The office chair sold over 50,000 units and solidified a relationship in which Tengler assists with ongoing projects.

Onecollection is now a worldwide recognized brand with its Salto & Sigsgaard council chair used in the Finn Juhl Chamber at the United Nations in New York and on the new campus of the University of Oxford. Other recent projects include furnishings for a hospital in Gødstrup, Denmark, and the Brewer’s Yard for the New Carlsberg Foundation in Copenhagen.

On 1stDibs, find Onecollection’s innovative seating, storage and case pieces and tables.