Danish Luxury

Design Furniture

Swan chair

Arne Jacobsen's upholstered lounge chair on a star-shaped aluminium base, designed in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen and made by Fritz Hansen.

Designed by
Arne Jacobsen
Made by
Fritz Hansen
First made
1958

Visit fritzhansen.com

A Swan chair in pale pink fabric in the corner of a room
A Swan chair in pale pink fabric in the corner of a room
A blue Swan chair and its aluminium base, seen from above
A blue Swan chair and its aluminium base, seen from above

Pictures © Fritz Hansen, from fritzhansen.com.

Why it is renowned

The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne holds a Swan chair made by Fritz Hansen around 1968, given to the museum by Design 250 in 1969.1 It stands with the Egg in the lobby of the Copenhagen hotel it was drawn for, now the Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Copenhagen.2

The story

Arne Jacobsen designed the Swan in 1958 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, a building he designed down to the cutlery in its restaurant; the Egg chair came from the same commission.324 He used the Swan again in later work, among it Danmarks Nationalbank.3 Fritz Hansen has made it ever since, upholstered in leather or fabric on a star-shaped base of satin-polished aluminium, and a sofa version is still in production.35

What to know it by

  • Swan chair1958Arne JacobsenLounge chair on a star-shaped aluminium base
  • Swan sofaArne JacobsenThe sofa version, still made
  • Egg1958Arne JacobsenIts companion from the SAS Royal Hotel
Sources
  1. Swan chair, Arne JACOBSEN, FRITZ HANSEN, Allerød, NGV. ngv.vic.gov.au, read 28 September 2026.
  2. Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Copenhagen, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 28 September 2026.
  3. Swan (chair), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 28 September 2026.
  4. Arne Jacobsen, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 28 September 2026.
  5. Swan, Fritz Hansen. fritzhansen.com, read 28 September 2026.

Last checked 28 September 2026, against the maker's own pages.