Georg Jensen

Georg Arthur Jensen was a silversmith and founder of the company Georg Jensen. He was apprenticed as a goldsmith until 1884; later he studied sculpture. Trained as a silversmith from 1892-4 in Copenhagen, then worked for Morgens Ballin. The influence of Ballin’s fleshy and organic interpretation of Art Nouveau is evident in Jensen’s work. After the establishment of his own workshop in 1904, he gained renown with an exhibition of silver jewellery. Reference: The British Museum.

Georg Jensen was born in 1866. He was the son of a knife grinder in a town north of Copenhagen called Raadvad. He started training at the age of 14 and was apprenticed to Guldsmet Andersen until 1884. Georg Jensen’s main ambition was to be a sculptor and studied this at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts until he graduated in 1892 and began exhibiting his work. At this stage it was mainly clay sculpture but he found it difficult to make a living in this field. He went on to become a modeller at the Bing & Grondahl porcelain factory then in 1898 he founded a partnership with Christian Petersen. This still proved difficult so in 1901 went back to being a silversmith and designer with Mogens Ballin. In1904 he opened his own silversmith company at 36 Bredegade, Copenhagen. This allowed him to combine his training in metalwork to form unique pieces of silver. He is most famous for Art Nouveau work and became extremely successful. By the late 1920’s there were retail outlets in London, Paris, New York, Stockholm, Berlin and Buenos Aires. Although Georg Jensen died in 1935 the company is still in existence today.