Background
Johan Martin Quist was born in Copenhagen on 3 September 1755, the son of Nicolaj Mathiessen Quist, a shoemaker, and Anna Marie Elisabeth Engelbrecht.
Johan Martin Quist was born in Copenhagen on 3 September 1755, the son of Nicolaj Mathiessen Quist, a shoemaker, and Anna Marie Elisabeth Engelbrecht.
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Together with those of Andreas Hallander, his classically styled buildings form part of the legacy of 19th century Danish Golden Age architects who reconstructed areas of the old town which had been destroyed by fire. Quist was one of the Copenhagen builders who so quickly and effectively helped to reconstruct the areas of the old town which had been destroyed by fire in June 1795. His imposing apartment buildings are inspired by Harsdorff"s neoclassical style.
He and his fellow builders formed a close-knit group, reinforced by their membership of the civil guard and fire corporations
Huge fortunes were made as they bought plots of land, built them up and sold them again. Quist"s earliest recognised building is Lykkens Prøve, later the Christianis Institut boys school, on Vesterbro which, in line with Hardorff"s own model on Kongens Nytorv, was decorated with four fluted pilasters in the inset central section while the lateral sections were accentuated with sandstone balconies on the first floor.
After the great fire, building regulations called for buildings on street corners to be set back to provide more room for fire engines. Quist took advantage of the new rules by designing bow-shaped corners, for example in the building on the corner of Knabrostæde and Kompagnistræde in 1797.
Two years later he built an even more effective corner house at 47 Vimmelskaftet where both facades boasted pilasters on three floors.
Quist, who died in Copenhagen on 25 April 1818, is buried in Assistens Cemetery.