OntwerperDanish
Poul Henningsen
50 actieve items
Poul Henningsen was born on 9 September 1894 in Ordrup, Denmark. He was the son of the author Agnes Henningsen and the satirist Carl Ewald, born from an extramarital relationship. In Denmark, where he is commonly referred to simply as PH, Henningsen became one of the most influential cultural figures of the interwar period, active as an architect, lighting designer, author, journalist, and polemicist. He studied architecture at the Frederiksberg Technical School (1911-1914) and the Technical College of Copenhagen but never completed a formal degree. He opened his own architectural practice in Copenhagen in 1919.
Henningsen's work in lighting design began in the early 1920s out of a dissatisfaction with the harsh glare produced by the then-new electric light bulb. His solution was a system of layered, logarithmically curved shades that redirected and diffused light to eliminate glare while providing warm, even illumination. The first iteration, shown as the 'Paris Lamp' at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, won a gold medal. This marked the beginning of his lifelong collaboration with the Danish manufacturer Louis Poulsen, which would produce all of his lighting designs.
The PH system expanded over the following decades into a family of lamps of varying scales and configurations. The PH 5 pendant (1958), with its characteristic colored inner shades visible beneath the main reflector, became the best-known Danish lighting fixture and remains in continuous production. Its name refers to its 50-centimeter diameter. The PH Artichoke (1958), designed for the Langelinie Pavillonen restaurant in Copenhagen, features 72 leaves arranged in 12 rows that provide completely glare-free light from any angle. It remains one of the most expensive and collected lighting designs of the twentieth century. Other significant designs include the PH Snowball (1958), the PH Septima (1927), and the PH Piano, a grand piano with an integrated lamp.
Beyond design, Henningsen was a vocal critic of cultural conservatism and social inequality in Denmark. He edited the journal Kritisk Revy (1926-1928) and wrote extensively on architecture, film, and jazz. During the German occupation of Denmark, he fled to Sweden in 1943 and remained there until 1945. In his later years he suffered from Parkinson's disease. He died on 31 January 1967 in Hillerød, Denmark, and donated his body to medical research. Over the course of his career he designed more than 100 lamps.
With approximately 737 lots on Auctionist, Henningsen's lighting designs are among the most frequently traded Scandinavian design objects. Early production PH lamps from the 1920s and 1930s, particularly those with patinated copper or brass shades, command the highest prices. The PH Artichoke, PH 5, and PH Snowball are consistently sought after, with original vintage examples achieving substantial premiums over current production. His work appears regularly at Bukowskis, Bruun Rasmussen, and Lauritz, as well as through Auctionet houses across Scandinavia.