Sheepskin colour Moonlight
oiled walnut legs
+ Canvas fabric (45 colours)
7791 €
Teenager, Finn Juhl (1912-1989) wanted to become an art historian, having a passion for the fine arts since childhood. His father stopped him and Finn Juhl started architectural studies. Later, when his fame as a designer of furniture acquired, he speaks of himself as an autodidact, in reference to this upset vocation that forced him to walk intellectually on a lonely way. His style owes much to this singular trajectory, with its non academic interpretation of art visible in his work. Finn Juhl started his studies in 1930, a key period which saw the birth of modern design and furniture.
His modern offices in central Copenhagen was greeting his visitors with a huge Japanese fish in paper, symbol of imagination. And rather than addressing the design of a furniture from an functional angle, in the classical manner, Finn Juhl approached his work in the manner of a sculptor, seeking the beauty of the volume and shape, life and expressiveness, an approach that, in the 1940s and 1950s, was then completely new. For Finn Juhl, it was clear that furniture could not be limited to function, but should also express an artistic sensibility.
This small two-seater sofa first saw the light of day at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition in 1941. It should be seen as a natural progression from the Pelican Chair that was displayed the previous year. The upholstery is very slim compared to the norm at the time and it was the result of Finn Juhl’s ambition to create functional furniture for smaller apartments.
The Poet Sofa is also one of Finn Juhl’s experiments for his own home. At the Guild Exhibition, the sofa was shown together with a couple of plaster reliefs by artist Sigurjón Ólafsson. In this way, he indicated the link between furniture and sculpture. The small sofa is a very comfortable embrace for two people, who will be sitting comfortably close.
The small sofa received its name much later, in 1959, when a popular Danish cartoonist depicted the exact sofa as the place where a young poet would withdraw to contemplate the complexities of life.
The Poet Sofa is available in the same execution as the Pelican Chair - with handsewn upholstery in fabric or leather and with legs in oak, walnut or black painted.
Dimensions L136 x D80 x H87 cm – seat height 38cm
Upholstery fabric or leather