Designer · Denmark · 1914–2007
Hans J. Wegner
Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007) – Danish furniture designer, creator of the Round Chair and Wishbone Chair, one of the key figures of Danish modernism.
About the designer
- Lifetime
- 1914–2007
- Country
- Denmark
- Manufacturers
- Getama, Ry Møbler
Hans J. Wegner was born in 1914 in Tønder. He trained as a cabinetmaker, becoming a journeyman in 1931, and then studied at Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen. In the early 1940s, he worked on furniture for Aarhus City Hall at the office of Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller, and from 1943 he ran his own studio.
From 1941, his furniture was made by the Johannes Hansen cabinetmaking workshop. It was there that the Round Chair was created in 1949, known simply as “The Chair”, which gained prominence in the USA during the televised Kennedy–Nixon debate in 1960. From 1950, he worked with Carl Hansen & Søn, which has produced the CH24 Wishbone Chair continuously ever since. He also designed for Fritz Hansen, PP Møbler, FDB Møbler, Getama and Ry Møbler.
His awards included the Lunning Prize (1951), the Eckersberg Medal (1956), the Prince Eugen Medal (1961) and the C.F. Hansen Medal (1982). The Wishbone Chair is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on the centenary of the designer’s birth, Designmuseum Danmark presented the exhibition “Wegner – Just One Good Chair” (2014). He died in 2007.
More Danish furniture from this period can be found in the collections SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN and Mid-Century Modern.
Key designs
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China Chair FH 4283
One of the early designs inspired by Chinese chairs.
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Round Chair (“The Chair”)
Today produced by PP Møbler.
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Wishbone Chair CH24
Produced continuously since c. 1950.
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Folding Chair JH512
Folding chair hung on the wall.
