Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005)

Nanna Ditzel was a designer and architect born in 1923 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was, without a doubt, one of the most successful Danish designers of the twentieth century.

Ditzel attended the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts, where she graduated as a cabinetmaker in 1943. The following year she studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in Copenhagen, under the famous professor Kaare Klint.

In collaboration with her husband, Jørgen Ditzel, Ditzel began designing silver jewelry in the 1950s for Georg Jensen. Their collaboration was long, and Ditzel's jewelry designs helped establish Georg Jensen's image as a modernist silver jeweler. Ditzel was often inspired by nature, and she managed to fuse the natural shapes and colors into her fine architectural designs. She was never afraid to try different materials and styles, and because of this, her work has a wide range of appearances. She experimented with unconventional constructions and often used bright colors in her furniture designs. Throughout the 1970s Ditzel continued her work, and she received much global attention. In 1981 she was elected chairwoman for the Design and Industries Association in London. She held this position until her second husband’s death in 1985. She stepped down as chairwoman and moved back to Denmark to open her own design studio in Copenhagen. She continued to collaborate with designers on major furniture projects up until her death.

Visit our exhibition page for "MEDITATIONS ON MODERNISM: Thirty Years of Jewelry Design by Jacqueline Rabun, 1990–2022 and Selections from Notable Post-WWII Nordic Jewelry" to learn more about the innovative and exquisite Nordic jewelry in our collection.