KÄHLER'S INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS
In the 1800s and 1900s, the historic Kähler workshop became a gathering place for many of the era's greatest Danish artists. People like Thorvald Bindesbøll, Svend Hammershøi and Kai Nielsen all made their mark on what today forms the DNA of Kähler’s design.
Arriving in 1885, Hans Andersen Brendekilde was Kähler’s first actual artistic employee, and contributed greatly to the brand's transition from creating merely earthenware to beautiful ceramics. Brendekilde was a painter and painted social-realistic pictures, and was at the time one of the country’s leading designers.
Brendekilde worked in Kähler’s workshop together with H.A. Kähler until 1907. Here, he decorated the vases and bowls that H.A. Kähler turned on the wheel – mainly with flowers, animals, and fairytale characters. The greatest impact Brendekilde had on the Kähler workshop was probably his artistic energy and the circle of other artists he attracted.
Laurids Andersen - also known as L.A. Ring, a nod to his birth town, Ring - was part of Brendekilde's circle of artist friends at the end of the 19th century. He painted landscape paintings and lived for a short time with Brendekilde. This was how he was introduced to Kähler for the first time. Ring was excited to try out ceramics as a material, but his ceramic career was limited to 10 to 12 pieces, and would thus never have much impact on Kähler.
Like Brendekilde, Ring’s greatest importance to the Kähler workshop were his cultural contacts. Ring married H.A. Kähler’s daughter, Sigrid Kähler, thus becoming part of the regular circle of artists around Kähler. He often painted situations from the workshop and family. One example is the painting “Lamp Light”, which depicts his wife Sigrid, and a lamp base with octopus arms. It is said that the lamp base was his own work. The picture now hangs in the National Gallery of Denmark.
After having been employed by the Royal Porcelain Factory, porcelain painter Karl Hansen Reistrup needed a fresh challenge and was happy to accept the offer to work at Kähler. He was hired as a painter and modeller in 1888. He quickly moved into a loft room at the factory, starting a close and intensive collaboration with H.A. Kähler - one that would continue until the next generation of the Kähler family took over.
Reistrup designed the forms and shapes which H.A. Kähler then turned on the wheel. All figures were moulded in plaster so that they could be easily mass produced. Notably, Reistrup loved animals, and created an entire ceramic zoo: He placed cats, ducks, and fish on bowls - or frogs on ashtrays. But he particularly likes lions. This is evident in his humorous figure “Lion’s Lunch”. Here, the lion looks extremely satisfied at having just consumed a human being for lunch.
Some of Reistrup's first animal vases were sold at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. Over time, Reistrup would become booked up with large decoration works around the country, but he would continue to return to the Kähler workshop.
Introduced to the brand by L.A. Ring, the architect Thorvald Bindesbøll spent a short time in the Kähler workshop, from 1890 to 1891. Indeed, none of the products he made during this time would be called masterpieces.
The best result he left behind was probably an earthenware pot with graphite decoration and a slip decoration, currently on display at the Danish Museum of Art and Design. Bindesbøll also designed an altar for Herning Church, made of glazed earthenware. Even though Bindesbøll’s stay at Kähler was brief, he kept in contact with Kähler for a long time afterwards.
Svend Hammershøi was a designer, painter, and ceramist who, over the course of his life, became a world-renowned artist with works exhibited in museums all over the world. He started working as an artistic designer at Kähler in 1893 and continued until his death. Hammershøi was thus the longest affiliated artist to Kähler’s workshop.
A typical characteristic of Hammershøi’s pots and bowls is the powerful horizontal and vertical profiling, repeated throughout his entire production. During his time at Kähler, Hammershøi revived terracotta ceramics, the unglazed, burnt red clay that, for example, was “muffle-burned”. This means that the object would be fired in the oven together with sawdust, a technique that produced a smoked surface.
After a few years in the workshop, it was large pots and floor vases in unglazed red clay that caught his interest. He loved to turn these by hand to give them just the right look. This greatly appealed to the master of the time, Nils Kähler, who loved to turn large objects.
Another thing associated with Hammershøi’s work are his white-grey-black works, created in collaboration with Jens Thirslund. Hammershøi had an invaluable impact on Kähler’s workshop and its development. Today, the inspiration from his work lives on in the Hammershøi series. Kähler’s current logo, HAK, which adorns all Kähler products, was also designed by Hammershøi.
The sculptor Kai Nielsen visited Kähler for the first time in 1921 - just three years before his death. During this time, he was extremely productive, but many of his works were discarded because he was so self-critical. His ambition was to reach all people, and would rather sell his works and produce them in thousands of copies than have them exhibited in museums. So, instead, he made many small figures to spread awareness of his art.
In collaboration with Thirslund, Nielsen started a major production of figures in 1922. These were made from old bronze moulds, which were previously used to cast bronze moulds. And the names of the figurines were just as inventive as the production method: 'The Sloth', 'Susanna in the bath', 'The Princess and the pea', 'Eva on the apple', 'Nina on the ball', and 'The Globetrotter' are just a handful. The figurines became hugely popular both in Denmark and abroad. A dealer from San Francisco brought 'The Princess and the pea' home from a trip and displayed it in his store. But an American women’s organisation showed a lot of resistance to 'The Princess and the pea' as they believed the figurine was sticking her belly out too much.
Jens Thirslund came to Kähler in 1913 at the request of an acquaintance. Despite not being qualified in the arts, he had an inherent talent for drawing, fueled by his love of art. Thirslund created his very own world of motifs, ranging from flowers to women, animals to ships, which he transferred to pots and tiles.
The majority of Thirslund’s production was wall tiles. These patterned, primed tiles were produced extensively in the workshop. Thirslund had a great passion for ceramics, and this is what led him to explore luster firing. He spent many nighttime hours deep in soot and smoke to explore this way of firing. This is how he came up with the black and white glaze used to decorate many of Hammershøi’s works. In addition to his work at the workshop, Thirslund also participated in many international exhibitions. He had separate exhibitions in Amsterdam and New York, but also took part in other exhibitions in Paris, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and Belgium.
Jens Thirslund played an important role in Kähler history. In addition to his own works, he was an entrepreneur, developer and source of inspiration for many of the other artists, including Svend Hammershøi and Kai Nielsen.
Every contemporary Kähler design is a tribute to Kähler’s unique history and a celebration of well-preserved craftsmanship, and is also an imprint of current times.
Ever since Brendekilde became the first real artist to be employed, artists have joined, year after year, and contributed to Kähler’s DNA. Brendekilde was of great importance to the Kähler workshop not only for his designs but because he attracted a wide range of artists.
These included Svend Hammershøi, who would come to have an invaluable impact on Kähler’s workshop and its development. Today, Hammershøi’s iconic works live on in the Hammershøi series. Kähler’s current logo, HAK, which adorns all our products, was also designed by Hammershøi.
Many of our ceramic designs are still based on craft traditions that go right back to when the Kähler adventure first began. Just as the skilled women ceramic painters at the old workshop in Kählersbakken hand-decorated the ceramics using cow horns, we still paint many of the designs by hand hand-cut the finer details and work with exciting glaze techniques. It is in the meeting between the precise and elegant brush strokes and the classic ceramics that Kähler’s unique design really comes into its own with its unique handmade look.
Signe Steffensen was a ceramic painter in Kähler until 1934, and was also known as mistress of the painting studio. She mastered the art of horn painting, an extremely difficult decoration technique. No two horn-painted ceramic objects are ever the same and these ceramics became one of the biggest successes in the history of the Kähler workshop.
Stella Kähler was the daughter of Herman August Kähler and married to artistic director Jens Thirslund. Stella Kähler threw herself into slip decorations with her own subtle style, and also tried out the red lustre. One of these was sold to the National Museum in Stockholm in 1914.
Tulle Emborg worked in Kähler’s workshop in the 1930s and she developed her own style, both in terms of horn painting and in wet-on-wet decorations. She used both spoons and shaking motions with great ingenuity to make the colors flow together. Her close collaboration with Nils Kähler is reminiscent of classic pottery, and their work became a great success.
