Contact details
Send a message
Call us
Distributors
1/4
About this product
Architonic ID: 1054388
Year of Launch: 2002
The Chieftain Chair is manufactured in walnut or oak and are upholstered in leather.
Size: W 100cm x D 88cm x H 92.5cm
Concept
The iconic Chieftain Chair is one of Finn Juhl’s absolute masterpieces, representing the peak of his career as a furniture designer. At its introduction in 1949, the chair marked a renewal of the Danish furniture design tradition. Today, it is perceived as one of the most important exponents of the Danish Modern movement in the US during the 1950s. For this reason, Finn Juhl is often considered the father of Danish Modern.
Inspired by modern art, the Chieftain Chair with its organic shapes, liberated itself from traditional Danish furniture design and strict functionalism in both shape, construction and materials.
In 2012, the Chieftain Chair won the Danish Design Award, Classic. The jury said in its motivation: ”Today, the Chieftain Chair stands as an inspiration to a new generation of furniture designers and as proof that attention to quality, international calibre and a will to break away from tradition can pave the way to make a difference as a designer”.
The Chieftain Chair and Stool are manufactured in walnut and are upholstered in leather.
At the 1949 Guild Exhibition, Finn Juhl reached his absolute peak as a pioneering furniture designer with the imposing Chieftain Chair. The chair is probably the most well-known piece of all of his chairs and a powerful design, which not only dominates in size and extravagance but also needs a lot of space around it to do itself justice. It is in true and proper fashion a chieftain. It has, with good reason, been called an icon of Danish furniture design.
Finn Juhl was however quite modest about the development process of the chair, and did not have any expectations of its greatness. Finn Juhl said:
“I started drawing the Chieftain Chair one day in the spring of 1949. I was at home, and I started drawing a small sketch around 10 AM with just four vertical lines connected with something. By two or three o’clock in the morning I had painted it. But in reality, I don’t know how long it took me to design that chair. Perhaps I had a vague idea for some time that I wanted to design something bigger. There had been so many small, handy chairs, so I probably felt like designing something a bit more pompous...”
This product belongs to collection:
Specifications
Material
Base solid wood, Leather, Seat leather, Wood
Distributors
Designers
Finn Juhl
Denmark
The Danish designer, architect, and interior architect Finn Juhl is today primarily known for his furniture designs, despite his contributions to all three fields. He is one of the most prominent Scandinavian furniture designers, and, along with Arne Jacobsen, one of the most important representatives of Danish design. Finn Juhl: a biography Finn Juhl was born 30 January 1912 in Frederiksberg. Under pressure from his father, he went to study architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1930 to 1934. Subsequently, he worked with the renowned architect Vilhelm Lauritzen, who himself contributed significantly to Danish architectural modernism. Juhl then began to teach interior design at his alma mater in Copenhagen, and soon after that founded his first design studio. In the 1940s, he also taught at the Frederiksberg Technical School and so began to influence the next generation of designers through his tutelage. In 1942, Juhl designed a house for himself, which is still known simply as Finn Juhl's House. In 1951, Juhl made his debut in the United States at the Good Design Show in Chicago and also at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In both 1954 and 1957, he received significant recognition for work he exhibted at the Milan Triennale. He was then given the task of designing several pieces of furniture for the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C. and for the offices and aircraft interiors of Scandinavian Airlines. During the 1950s, Juhl was appointed the interior architect of the Trusteeship Council Chamber inside the New York headquarters of the United Nations, where he designed the chairs for the organisation's deputies. Other well-known designs by Juhl include a porcelain dinner set for Denmark's Bing & Grondahl, refrigerators for General Electric, and glassware for Georg Jensen. Finn Juhl: Poet Sofa The Poet Sofa was designed by Finn Juhl for his own house in 1941; Juhl designed the sofa along curving organic lines, with armrests which seem to softly embrace the sitter. The hand-stitched sofa became a design classic in the 1950s, when it was discovered in America during the Scandinavian design craze. Finn Juhl: 45 Chair Designed in 1945, the 45 Chair by Finn Juhl signified a break with existing traditions in chair design. The main feature of the design is the freeing of the seat and the backrest from the frame of the chair itself. The result is a simple, elegant and remarkable chair which brought Juhl enormous recognition, making him world-renowned and helping to popularise Danish design the world over. © by Architonic