Early Career in Denmark
He worked as a substitute teacher in the Academy’s building class 1781-1782, and in 1783 he took on a fulltime position there as teacher, but never as a professor, which meant that he could not become a member of the Academy.
In early 1784 the Cabinetmaking Guild tried to prevent his getting a license to run the family cabinetmaking workshop, which his recently deceased mother had run as a widow after the death of his father. The Guild did not recognize him as having Guild rights, because he had not received Guild recognition on a submitted work for approval. The Academy, under Johannes Wiedewelt’s leadership, supported Lillie’s request for a trade license as a cabinetmaker in Copenhagen. The Chancellery awarded him all Guild rights, because he had won the Academy’s large gold medallion in 1779. He received his trade license that year, and ran the workshop 1784-1799.
That same year, on Harsdorff’s recommendation, he was hired by new Director Carsten Anker as inspector and designer at The Royal Furniture Storehouse (Det kongelige Møbelmagasin), replacing Georg Roentgen from Neuwied. The Storehouse was a national institution with the aim of improving domestic furniture production by creating model production facilities, supporting new master craftsmen, and selling furniture in its own store.
He married Rebekka Marie Clausen June 25, 1784.
His talents were also used for the interior design of apartments at Christiansborg Palace. His first large work was the decoration of the suite at the castle for the newly married Princess Louise Augusta and Christian Friedrich of Augustenborg in 1786.
In 1787 he was cited for negligence of duties as a teacher at the Academy, and was refused a travel stipend, which should have been his due as recipient of the gold medallion eight years prior. Fellow gold medallion winner that same year and friend C.F. Hansen had also been refused a travel stipend, but was able to travel on account of direct financial dispensation from Dowager Queen Juliane Marie and King Christian VII.
In 1788 he applied for the job of City Architect i Copenhagen, but to no avail.
He married his second wife Julie Meinier (Meunier) in France.
In 1790 Lillie did the interior design for Crown Prince and Regent Frederik’s apartments both at Christiansborg Palace, and at Frederiksberg Palace. On November 3, 1790 he was appointed Interior Designer to the Danish Court.
He travelled in Norway 1793.
The interior decoration in 1794-1795 of various apartments in Schack's Palace (today commonly referred to as Christian IX’s Palace) at Amalienborg, then the home of the Crown Prince and his family, are also attributed to him.
The Christiansborg fire of 1794 destroyed much of his work at the castle, although some individual pieces survived.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Christian Lillie
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