good light BY HANS HERTEL
good light & GOOD LIFE
Poul Henningsen – the lighting pio-
the lighting level had to be soft and pleasing”. For this
neer and enlightened genius
reason, the young Poul Henningsen took it upon himself
who helped shape contempo-
to eliminate the glare from all the lamps in the house.
rary Denmark and ‘the Scan-
PH was what could best be described as a Jack-of-all-
dinavian Model’
trades. He was a multi-talented artist: architect, inven-
By Hans Hertel
tor, designer, songwriter, lyricist and film-maker. He was also an art and architecture critic, before becoming a
Vain mother and young inventor Poul Henningsen (1894–1967) – perhaps better known as PH – was an architect
general culture critic and debate contributor – and finally a kind of popular pedagogue. The various sides of his character cross-pollinated one another, but practice took precedence over theory.
and much, much more. He loved to relate how the story
PH was a child of the famous ‘free love’ of the 1890s.
of his famous PH lamp began. The first seed of an idea
His mother, the author Agnes Henningsen, gave birth to
began to germinate in 1907 when, aged 13, he moved
him outside of wedlock and his father was a Copenha-
with his family from the small town of Roskilde, where
gen journalist and bohemian. He was placed in care with
kerosene lamps were still used for lighting, to the me-
a joiner and his family who lived in a provincial town,
tropolis of Copenhagen, where the revolutionary electric
and on his third birthday, his adoptive family presented
illumination had already arrived.
him with a planing bench. This was a very perspective
The transfer from malodorous gas and kerosene lamps
gift from the joiner, because pure skill and a tactile rela-
to electric incandescent lamps was a giant leap forward
tionship to materials and tools played a key role in PH’s
from the perspectives of both civilisation and hygiene,
creativity from the very start.
and Edison’s first carbon filament light bulb produced
“My creative life was centred on the technical,” he said,
truly beautiful light. However, the subsequent spiral
and referred to himself as a joiner, mason and mechanic.
light bulbs – bare or with opalised, milky glass – sprayed
As a boy, he built model aeroplanes, trolleys and kites,
light out over rooms, streets and people at the cost of
and at the age of 17 he was awarded a grant for having
the quality of the light. PH’s mother was very vain, he
invented a ‘self-pumping bicycle’. From 1919 onwards,
related, explaining that “she maintained strict control of
he concentrated on lamps. To start with, he focused on
the lighting to ensure she stayed sufficiently pretty ...
prism chandeliers and ruby shades intended to make
his mother prettier, but he gradually started to work on
Giant leap and white birds
more general lighting issues.
DPH achieved his first giant leap in 1925 when he created new types of lamp for an international industrial art
Applied art and the beauty of light
exhibition in Paris: the Exposition Internationale des Arts
Poul Henningsen was apprenticed to a mason and took
Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which gave its name
courses in construction theory and mathematics. How-
to the elegant Art Déco style. One of the criteria for the
ever, he was actually an autodidact. From 1919 he
exhibition was a complete prohibition on copying; every-
worked on the construction of residences, and in 1921
thing had to be shaped on the basis of modern ideals of
he became an architectural staff writer for the Danish
beauty. PH’s six table lamps and pendants – presented in
newspaper Politiken – the first in the Nordic region. His
ten versions including a giant spherical chandelier – won
construction page was devoted to buildings and applied
six gold medals. They revitalised shape, anti-glare, light-
art, traffic, urban and rural planning, and everyday ob-
ing control and light economy, and they aligned with PH’s
jects from the city environment: everything from adver-
ideal: to design everyday items so that they could be de-
tising columns and newsstands to telephone boxes and
mocratised in machine-based standardisation. However,
street lights. Behind it all lay a new social concept of
the models were expensive to make.
architecture which states that architecture is applied art
PH’s next giant leap came in autumn of the same year,
intended to build societies and improve conditions for
when he took a radical step and developed the distinc-
people’s lives in light and air, freedom and equality. De-
tive PH lamp with three shades. In the same way as the
sign is defined by function, and it is preferable to build
Parisian lamp, it was made by Louis Poulsen & Co. – his
in contemporary style – not in the stylised architecture of
partner since 1924 – and it was something of a com-
faux ‘empire’ grandeur.
mercial scoop when in the winter of 1926, the company
PH also wrote about light and sought what he termed a
bested two German competitors to win the contract for
natural science solution: “light that showcases beautiful
lighting an international car exhibition at Forum, the new
things in the best possible way – beautiful shapes, beau-
exhibition centre in Copenhagen. The company quickly
tiful colours, beautiful fabrics”, as he wrote in 1924. The
produced 120 of the new lamps, and when they were
challenge was to shade and redirect the light to make
suspended from the ceiling in Forum, one newspaper
it a practical, decorative and a contrasting element. This
wrote: “The white birds flew through the giant hall”.
was the issue he worked on in primitive light workshops
The birds were soon also flying in thousands of homes,
that he set up in his houses. In 1921, he drew a multi-
restaurants, offices and institutions. In just the first year,
shade ‘snowball’ pendant for a cubist dining room in
12,000 lamps were sold in Denmark, and suspended
Aalborg, and one of his outdoor lamps was installed in
and standing versions were made by the Deutsche PH-
Copenhagen.
Lampenfabrik in Karlsruhe, Germany, and marketed in
numerous countries, in parallel with new branded goods
design. He was unabashedly committed to becoming a
including furniture, gramophones, typewriters and cars.
brand. The success of his lamps made his initials – PH – a
In 1929, the lamp was installed at Cologne Railway Sta-
trademark that he also wrote in giant letters on his kites
tion, while a campaign in the Danish press prevented
and at exhibitions.
‘these modern horrors’ being purchased for Copenhagen
The PH ‘brand’ was reinforced by his controversial journal
Central Station.
entitled Kritisk Revy. Over a period of three years from 1926 through 1928, it grew to be known and feared
Spiral pattern and brand
for its fight to renew culture in the context of building,
With the three-shade model – plate, bowl and cup, as
homes and other areas. It was feared by older architects
he himself described it – PH had arrived at a simple con-
on account of its insubordinate impartiality – and revered
cept: warm, glare-free, uniform light with soft shadows
by young architects throughout Scandinavia, including
in a neat compromise between enclosure, utilisation of
the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
the sensory quality of the light, and aesthetic beauty. In the wake of the Paris exhibition, he proudly referred
Josephine Baker and Scandinavian Modern
to himself as a ‘master lighter’ and later as a ‘lampist’.
PH’s reputation as the brash rebel grew in 1928, when
Over the next 40 years, he developed versions of the
Josephine Baker, appearing as a guest performer in Co-
‘PH system’ for standing lights, table lights, pendants
penhagen, was attacked by misogynist and racist ‘guard-
and ceiling lights in opalised glass, copper and bronze,
ians of morality’. PH was quick to defend her ‘naked
painted and coloured – in shade, chandelier, ball, spiral
naturalness’, and she taught him something new about
and plate shapes. As well as tennis, dentist’s, operating
the body and rhythm. From 1929 onwards, he became a
theatre, restaurant and street lamps.
renewer of revue art by creating a socially critical opin-
The PH lamp followed the clearly defined shapes of cub-
ion revue, as well as a new form of ballad based on the
ism and the geometric curves of the lamp itself: the
spoken language and jazz rhythms.
logarithmic spiral became an archetypal pattern in PH’s
In his perspectives on architecture and design, PH was a
sceptical modernist. He was critical of exterior formalism
particularly the type that came sneaking up from Nazi
in much of the ultra-modern style of the time, but there
Germany in 1933, infecting the Danish people with iras-
are key similarities between his work and Bauhaus, the
cible nationalism. PH collided head-on with this move-
Dutch ‘De Stijl’ and the work of the French architect Le
ment in 1935, when he made his film about Denmark for
Corbusier. His ideal centred on simple, functional shapes
the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The film presents a
in materials suitable for batch production.
poetic image of the modern, hard-working country, but
He also encountered this style at the Stockholm exhibi-
it was attacked for being ‘unpatriotic’ – and for its jazz
tion in 1930, which coined the concept of functionalism,
soundtrack, which the critics contemptuously referred to
more commonly known internationally as Scandinavian
as ‘black man’s music’. PH tirelessly promoted a cultural
Modern. PH lauded the new types of residence and fur-
battle against Nazism and in favour of the freedom of
niture showcased at the exhibition, the elegant and cool
expression that was being undermined by the threats
moderation, the new values of beauty in steel, glass and
from Germany.
cement, and in the use of the light. Icon and safety net Functionalism and ‘The Modern’
“He who seeks coherence must diversify,” wrote PH in
PH viewed functionalism and cubism as the style of the
1932, and over the next 30 years he made diversification
age, impartial and classless, and he expanded this into
an art form. One part of him wrote articles and edited
a broad socio-political programme. In ‘The Modern’, de-
journals. Another composed revue ballads and made
mocracy, critical humanism, internationalism and new
films. A third designed factories and houses, furniture
shape were different sides of the same coin. He neatly
made of steel tubing and a famous glass piano. A fourth
termed this democracy’s light summer programme, and
spoke at lectures and debates all over Denmark. A fifth
it also encompassed female emancipation and – most
devoted itself to creating new lamp models.
controversially of all – an honest sexual morality for
In 1935 he introduced the Globe, in 1942 the Tivoli and
young people.
Spiral lamp, and the post-war years were distinguished
He believed that the new art forms of the age exerted
by a chain of new initiatives: the Louvre in 1957; the
indirect political influence by “changing mentality in a
Snowball, the floating Artichoke and the simple, highly
modern direction” , and in 1934 he wrote that the “most
popular A5 in 1958; the Contrast lamp in 1962; and the
important cultural results” of democracy are “function-
elegant Spiral lamp in 1964.
alism, jazz, dance, outdoor living and the passion that
Today, the PH lamp is an icon that is on display in design
flows inevitably from it”. That flows inevitably from it –
museums from New York to Tokyo, but it also took on
how very picturesque! How very provocative.
financial significance as a safety net for PH. When, as an
The Modern programme was diametrically opposed to
anti-Nazi, he was forced to flee to Sweden in 1943, he
reaction and reactionary ideals in any shape or form –
supported himself by producing a version of the lamp
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freedom
& QUALITY
with a pleated paper shade and selling it through the Co-
Above all, PH was an artist. His works of genius are the
operation. For 42 years, Louis Poulsen & Co. was both his
journal Kritisk Revy, his esteemed Danmarksfilmen, his
creative environment and a base that made him inde-
renewal of the revue – and, first and foremost, the PH
pendent of media, authorities and organisations when
Lamp. During his twilight years, his cultural criticism
he baited public opinion.
became shaded by cultural pessimism. He feared that
From a stylistic perspective, too, it is possible to deter-
‘industrial dictatorship’, consumerism, advertising and
mine a consistent theme. The logarithmic spiral of the
mass media pop would brainwash us into petty bour-
PH lamp is repeated in his snail-shapes and spirals –
geois conformism. He even compared this – somewhat
from the circular movements of the camera around the
drastically – to the servitude of Nazism.
towers of Copenhagen in Danmarksfilmen to his snake
As an artist, however, he kept on working to the end,
chairs, spiral staircases and lamps. The spiral symbolises
playing with kites and words and fixtures – the models
dynamism: his belief in progress and his dream of the
that can still be adapted to new settings all over the
creative community.
world.
PH was a cross between a socialist, a liberal individualist
Spirit and light
and quasi-anarchist. He was bitterly opposed to ‘the en-
The quality of the light – and the constancy of the light,
emies of life’ as he called them, i.e. everything that binds
we may add, because an historical perspective applies.
our mouths and hands: prejudice, habitual thinking, in-
The classics speak to each other across the centuries.
tolerance and hypocrisy. His mantra was: the individual
In 1926, Otto Gelsted – and author friend of PH – wrote
before parties, organisations, religions and authorities.
an ode to the PH lamp. It lauds ‘the shining logic of the
The individual before the state. With his clarity and his
lamp’ where ‘Of light and soul the pact / Re-enacts’.
courage, his perseverance and his insubordinate impact,
Several years later, Otto Gelsted sent his friend two lines
he played a key role in shaping contemporary Denmark
written by the Lyricist Thøger Larsen, which he recalled
and ‘the Scandinavian Model’ – as a style as well. He
as: “It was the same sunshine, / that Isaac Newton saw.”
demanded quality for the framework that surrounds our
The beauty of these lines is not just the rhythm and
lives – and the light in which we view it. Neon light was
the letter rhyme, but also the vision. I see two images:
one of ‘the enemies of life’. In the Louis Poulsen maga-
1667, Trinity College Cambridge – the eminent physicist
zine, which he edited for 25 years, he railed against the
Newton discovers that white light is composed of all the
plague of the fluorescent light – the garish light that only
colours in the spectrum. 1925 – PH is working with a
serves for plastic colours, paints people’s faces the bluish
candle and a piece of paper in the black-painted attic in
white hue of skimmed milk, and which is only good for
his terraced house – and arrives at his illuminating logic.
“cases where ladies want to have unsightly hair growth
It is no coincidence that the enlightenment movement
removed” in his opinion. In this context, he anticipated
of the 1700s is named after the concept of physical light
the halogen lamps and energy-saving bulbs of our mod-
in many major languages: Enlightenment in English, illu-
ern age.
minismo in Italian, Aufklärung in German, la Illustracíon
A core concept of PH’s lighting philosophy is that lighting
in Spanish, and les lumières in French. PH the light-mak-
culture is both art and design for living. Light is subju-
er was a man of the Enlightenment, inextricably bound
gated to physiological laws; it generates well-being, a
to its fundamental values: scientific reason, freedom of
spatial and sensory experience, irrespective of whether
belief and expression, human rights, and humanistic tol-
we are eating, making love, working, playing sport, tak-
erance. Particularly when following his shining path and
ing lessons or looking at art.
his vision: good light as a part of good life.
www.louispoulsen.com
Why is the PH lamp the only lamp that ever gets copied?
Text and drawing by Poul Henningsen, 1931 newspaper advertisement