Safari Chair – Carl Hansen

Kaare Klint, 1933

Thor leather black 301

Thor leather burgundy 332

black leather
(Thor 301)

cognac leather
(Thor 307)

beige leather
(Thor 325)

burgundy leather
(Thor 332)

Recognized as the father of modern Danish design, Kaare Klint (1888-1954) designed icons such as the 1914 Faaborg chair and the 1933 Safari chair, as well as the design of the Danish Pavilion reception hall at the Exposition 1929 Barcelona international.

As the son of architect Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint, Kaare Klint was immersed in architecture from an early age, but made Danish design history as a furniture designer and educator. In 1924, he participated in the establishment of the furniture design department at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. As a partner and later a professor, he inspired some of Denmark's greatest furniture designers and architects - including Hans J. Wegner, Mogens Koch, Arne Jacobsen and Poul Kjærholm. Today, Klint is considered a reformer: as one of the first designers to place functionalism and the practical study of architectural and furniture design principles above style, he redefined a period otherwise characterized by a style-oriented academic education.

Klint had an exceptional sense of proportion and space and created "human furniture" based on studies of the body. He studies the uses of an object rather than its form and renews the design of Danish furniture by refining the tradition and developing objects perfectly in relation to their primary purpose. Klint was also mindful of the designs relationship to its surroundings, insisting that his pieces never dominate a space, but unite form and function for a greater whole.

In all his work, he insisted on clear and logical design, clean lines, the finest materials and exceptional craftsmanship. Klint received numerous accolades, including the Eckersberg Medal in 1928 and the C.F. Hansen Medal in 1954. In 1949 he became Honorary Royal Designer for Industry in London.

In 1934, at the age of 19, Esben Klint completed his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker, obtaining a bronze medal. The following year, he graduated from the Building Masters School in Copenhagen. Esben Klint then spent a year at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, after which he began working in various design studios in Copenhagen and abroad. He also worked for his father, Kaare Klint, at the Bethlehem Church in Copenhagen, for Mogens Koch on furniture for the Skive hospital, for Swedish architect E.G. Asplund on furniture for a school in Karlshamn, Sweden. , on industrial design for the Philips radio factory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands - and with his close friend Børge Mogensen on the design of wooden school furniture. In 1948 he joined the Danish Association of Architects, becoming a board member in 1950.

Esben Klint's main source of inspiration came from his travels through Denmark and abroad, the aim of which has always been to research and experiment with architecture. He traveled to the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Poland and what was then the USSR. In Denmark, Esben Klint liked to travel to the west coast of Jutland and South Jutland, where he had also spent a lot of time as a child.

Esben Klint opened his own design studio in 1954 and, after his father's death, took over many of the latter's unfinished works, including St. Nicholas' Church and Christian churches in the Danish towns of Aabenraa and Sønderborg respectively . Esben Klint considered his work on the completion of Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen to be one of his greatest achievements - work his grandfather PV Jensen-Klint had begun in 1921, continued by his father Kaare Klint and completed by Esben Klint, the third generation of the family. To this day, Grundtvig Church remains one of the most striking and spectacular buildings in Copenhagen.

In addition to his design studio, Esben Klint also worked full-time with Royal Building Inspector Nils Koppel, where he was responsible for supervising and restoring state churches and castles.

Hardworking, meticulous and a perfectionist, Esben Klint approaches his projects with a high degree of seriousness and attention to detail. Despite his collaborations with some of the greatest architects and designers of the time, Esben Klint was and remains his father's disciple - a fact clearly demonstrated by his church furnishings, lamps and furniture. He has exhibited several times at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, the Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition in Copenhagen and at Købestævnet in the Danish town of Fredericia with his friend Børge Mogensen. Esben Klint died of illness in 1969 – aged just 53.