Panthella Floor Lamp by Verner Panton for Louis Poulsen, 1960s

Want to Learn More About Verner Panton?

Verner Panton is often thought to be one of the most influential Danish designers of the 20th century. He contributed to the Pop Art movement in the 1960s with sleek styles representing the oft-cited “Space Age” feel of the decade. Born in 1926, and initially working as an artist in Odense, Panton studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Art before graduating in 1951. He then worked under Verner Panton , a fellow Danish architect and furniture designer. He was greatly influenced by Jacobsen, assisting him with various designs, including the famous Ant Chair. Soon after, Verner Panton started his own design company and became known for his bold and boundary-pushing ideas such as a collapsible house in 1955 and the Cardboard House and the Plastic House in 1960.

The notoriety of Verner Panton

In the 1950s, Verner Panton thought about making a stackable cantilevered plastic chair that was one complete piece, which led to the invention of the Panton S Chair, one of his most iconic and mass-produced designs. Another celebrated Panton creation was the Cone Chair in 1959, which caused a minor scandal and cemented his place as a visionary, exciting designer. These Dining Chairs , padded cone-shaped metal shells placed point-down on cross-shaped metal bases, the Cone began as a design for his parents’ new restaurant. A Danish businessman spotted it at the opening and offered to put it into production for Panton. When it was photographed in a Danish design magazine two years later, Panton draped naked with shop mannequins and models on the chairs. Needless to say this attracted a lot of publicity. After this, in the late 1960s and early 70s, he started designing “total environments”, including the Astoria Hotel at Trondheim in Norway, covering the walls and floors in the same pattern. He’s also known for his work for Der Spiegel, a German magazine based in Hamburg.

The return of Verner Panton

In 1995, British Vogue featured a naked Kate Moss on a Panton Chair, pushing his designs back to centre-stage after a brief time away from the spotlight. His 1960s pieces were put back into production and he was invited to design an exhibition at Trapholdtmuseum in Kolding, Denmark. The exhibition opened on 17 September 1998, but Verner Panton had died in Copenhagen 12 days earlier.

Now recognized as one of the world’s foremost lighting manufacturers, Louis Poulsen began its long life in 1874, first as the Copenhagen Direct Wine Import Company, and then, starting in 1896, as an electrical components and tools supplier. In the 1910s, Louis Poulsen (1871-1934), nephew of the Copenhagen-based company’s original founder, took over and soon after became partners with entrepreneur and electricity enthusiast Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen (1884-1938). Together they reincorporated as Louis Poulsen & Co. In 1917, Kaastrup-Olsen acquired Poulsen's shares and became the company’s sole proprietor, just in time to benefit from the increasing demand for electrically powered fixtures that developed during and after World War I.

In 1924, Kaastrup-Olsen began collaborating with Danish architect Poul Henningsen (1894-1967) on the design of an innovative, three-shade lamp system, after Henningsen was chosen to participate in the legendary Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes to be held the following year in Paris. Henningsen won the gold medal there, and his work with the Louis Poulsen & Co. grew into a lifelong collaboration that remains the foundation of its ongoing production today.

Henningsen was obsessed with light and considered himself a “lighting architect.” With his PH Lamp series, he sought to create glare-free yet direct light where it was most needed, accompanied by soft shadows, lit by the then-new incandescent bulbs. He did not just design a light, but an entire system; around a thousand different models have been designed over the years. Pioneering and timeless classics such as Henningsen’s Artichoke Lamp (1958) and the PH5 (1958), as well as fellow Danish designer Verner Panton’s Ceiling Flower Pot lamp (1968) and Panthella table lamp (1971), are considered to be among the most iconic Scandinavian contributions to modern design culture.

Louis Poulsen—beloved by design lovers around the world—continues to specialize in the development and production of lighting solutions for indoor and outdoor applications. With function, comfort, and ambience at the core of each design, the company’s products can be found in numerous design museum collections, including MoMA (New York), Cooper Hewitt (New York), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Museum of Decorative Arts (Copenhagen), Design Museum (London), and Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein). Today Louis Poulsen is part of Polaris Private Equity.

* All images courtesy of Louis Pousen.