Finn Juhl 'Poet' Sofa for Niels Vodder, 1941

An admirer of modern art, Finn Juhl (1912–89) debuted a pair of his Poet sofas — originally created for his own home — at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild furniture fair in 1941 alongside abstract plaster sculptures by Icelandic artist Sigurjón Ólafsson. While he aimed to produce functional pieces for small spaces, Juhl spent his formative years exploring the National Art Gallery of Denmark and wanted to make furniture that was expressive and interesting. Accompanying his work with art became a tradition for the pioneering Danish architect and designer, who helped introduce Scandinavian modernism to American shores.

Juhl attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and worked as an interior designer under Danish modern architect Vilhelm Lauritzen. Prior to garnering acclaim for his wood-framed chairs, Juhl’s handsome upholstered furniture was the order of the day. In collaborating with Niels Vodder— who manufactured the FJ41, or Poet sofa, named after Jørgen Mogensen’s comic strip — Juhl created alluring seating defined by organic curves and sculptural qualities that set it apart from the unadorned chairs of other Scandinavian modernist furniture makers such as Alvar Aalto.

Occupying sparse real estate, the diminutive two-seat Poet sofa was relaunched in 2001 by House of Finn Juhl, a company that is part of One Collection, which produces the sofa today. With its plush winged back and inwardly curving armrests covered in handwoven fabric, the piece offers little room between sitters. It’s as if the Poet sofa anticipates romance, or at least demands close conversation. Very close conversation.

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 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. His earliest works, designed in the late 1930s, are perhaps his most idiosyncratic. The influence of contemporary art is clear in Juhl's 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 Danish furniture-making firm Niels Vodder began to issue his designs. Yet his 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 biomorphic Baker sofa, and the Judas table, a piece ornamented with stylish inlaid silver plaquettes.

As you will see from the offerings on 1stDibs, Finn Juhl’s furniture — as well as his lighting, ceramics, tableware and accessories — has an air of relaxed sophistication and elegance that is unique in the realm of mid-20th-century design.