Arne Jacobsen is born on February 11, 1902 in Copenhagen. His father, Johan Jacobsen, is a wholesale trader in safety pins and snap fasteners. His mother, Pouline Jacobsen, a bank clerk, paints floral motifs in her spare time. The family lived in a typical Victorian style home. As a contrast to his parents’ overly decorated taste, Arne paints his room in white.
Background & school relations
He met the Lassen brothers at Nærum Boarding School: later, Flemming Lassen was to become his partner in a series of architectural projects. Arne Jacobsen is a restless pupil, always up to pranks, with a self-deprecating humour. Already as a child, he showed an extraordinary talent for drawing and depicting nature through scrupulous studies. He wants to be painter, but his father felt that architect was a more sensible choice.
The Pleasant and the necessary trips abroad
Jacobsen’s travelling begin already in his twenties, when he went to sea to New York. Then followed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in Germany and a series of study and drawing excursions to Italy. Jacobsen produced some of his finest watercolours during this period, capturing atmospheres and shapes accurately and carefully. From the beginning of his career, Jacobsen turned his gaze abroad, without abandoning Danish traditions.
Arne Jacobsen behind the design
Jacobsen production reflects his personality: an insistent, perfectionist modernist, to whom no detail was trivial, although the main picture was basically black/white and unambiguous. On the other hand, the nature-loving botanist and jovial family man: like him, his work is precise and warm, Danish and universal, modern and timeless.
Seat height 44cm (3 legs) or 46.5 cm (4 legs).
Total height 78 or 80.5 cm.
Width 48 cm.
Depth 48 cm.
Warranty Fritz Hansen offer up to 20 years limited warranty if the products are registered online at fritzhansen.com/my-republic.
Arne Jacobsen
The 3-legs wood version Ant chair is available in the same woods as the 4-legs wood version Ant chair.
Click on View to select your colour.
3 legs
4 legs
Initially, Arne Jacobsen designed the Ant™ for the canteen at Novo Nordisk, an international Danish healthcare company. The inspiration for the Ant came from Hvidt & Mølggard’s AX-series. Today, the Ant is one of the most prominent icons in the collection. "In my opinion, he Ant is the most influential example of furniture design in the 20th century" says Kjeld Vindum, who add "It is an immensely important chair because it takes into account the new way of life and the new possibilities, and at the same time it has an elegant and up-to-date expression. It is one of Arne Jacobsen's masterpiece.
Despite its minimalist form and svelte shape, the Ant is an extremely comfortable chair. The shell is in pressure molded veneer. The inner veneer is always beech and the outer veneer is available in different veneers (maple, Beech, Ash, Elm, Oak, etc.) and in colored or lacquered ash.
ash
maple
elm
cherry
beech
oak
dark stained oak
walnut
oregon pine
