Who was Finn Juhl?

Together with Hans Wegner, Børge Mogensen and Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl was one of the prominent masters of Danish furniture design from the middle of the 20th century. Juhl was the first of the group to achieve international recognition as a leading Scandinavian designer in furniture art.

Despite Juhl's father wanting him to take a more secure and traditional career path, Finn Juhl decided to study architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating in 1934, he went directly to work in the architectural firm Vilhelm Lauritzen, where he gained recognition for several of his early concepts. He also explored the potential of furniture design at the same time, and his first works were exhibited at the Snedkerlauget exhibitions, which aimed to showcase modern design.

Although initially controversial, his works began to receive recognition, perhaps spurring him to leave the field of architecture in 1945 to establish his own design firm. Some of his most successful creations from this early period were those developed in collaboration with master joiner Niels Vodder (1892-1982). This was expressed in his "Armchair (model 45)" (1945), the NV-46 armchair (1946), the NV-48 sofa (1948) and the Chieftain chair (1949). The works would go on to become Juhl's style for years to come. In 1951 he had works exhibited at the Good Design exhibition in Chicago as well as in the IX Triennale di Milano where he exhibited new furniture designs.

Juhl continued to create furniture and product designs until the mid-1970s, when the style and trends changed from streamlined modernist lines.

Today, Juhl is considered to be one of the most influential furniture designers in Denmark, ever. You can even find his famous creations in the world's best museum collections, such as New York's Museum of Modern Art.