Finn Juhl, Rare Important Sofa Walnut Fabric, Baker Furniture United States 1951

With the Baker sofa, aesthetics are as important as utility. Its creator, Finn Juhl (1912–89), once said, “Art has always been my main source of inspiration.” This was unusual for a designer associated with Scandinavian modernism, a movement steeped in cabinetmaker traditions and thus laser-focused on craftsmanship. But unlike his peers, Juhl was not trained in cabinetry. While he shared their prevailing interest in materials, details and finishes, he mined the world of modern art for ideas. Beginning with his early work, such as the Pelican chair, Juhl’s designs stood out for their sculptural qualities, evoking both natural forms and the abstract art he loved.

In his youth, Juhl dreamed of becoming an art historian but his father steered him toward architecture, a more financially stable path. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and in 1934, was hired to work on interiors for renowned Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen. Later, Juhl opened his own practice, specializing in furniture and interior design. In collaborating with esteemed cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, Juhl developed new methods of joining and bending teak. The elegant results of their experiments have been credited with helping make teak synonymous with Danish modernism.

Not long after his designs were the subject of a feature article in Interiors magazine, Juhl was commissioned to create the exhibition design for Chicago’s “Good Design” show as well as contribute his work to the event. In 1950, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based furniture manufacturer Hollis Baker commissioned Juhl to design a collection for the Baker Furniture Company — “Baker Modern,” the firm's inaugural line of modern furniture.

Introduced in 1951, the Baker sofa marked Juhl’s entrance into the American market. The collection was a great success and is credited with igniting the fervor for Danish modernism that dominated the markets in the 1950s and ’60s.

Juhl admitted to being “fascinated by shapes that defy gravity and create a visual lightness,” and in dividing the backrest of the Baker sofa into two separate parts, the design achieved both these objectives. Soft edges and organic shapes show the influence of Juhl’s favorite Surrealist artists, Jean Arp and Joan Miró.

Juhl’s American success included the commission to design the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations in New York in 1952, and he was awarded five gold medals at the Milan Triennale. With a frame of oak or walnut and upholstery in fabric or leather, the Baker sofa is manufactured by the House of Finn Juhl, a One Collection company. It remains a sophisticated example of how fine craftsmanship and mass production can coexist. 

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.

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