Carl Heinrich von Heineken (1707–1791) was a German art historian who was for a time in charge of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III ( pl, August III Sas, lt, Augustas III; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Aug ...

's royal art collection. Carl Heinrich von Heineken 1781

Biography

He was the son of Paul Heinecken, a painter and architect in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, Germany, and

Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken Catharina Elisabeth Heinecken (1683 – November 5, 1757) was a German artist and alchemist and the mother of a celebrated child prodigy, Christian Heinrich Heineken. Family Born in Lübeck, she was the daughter of painter Franz Oesterreich and t ...

, an artist and alchemist. His younger brother

Christian Heinrich Heineken Christian Heinrich Heineken or Heinecken (February 6, 1721 – June 27, 1725), also known as "the infant scholar of Lübeck", was a German child prodigy who lived only to the age of four. Life He was born in Lübeck, Germany, the son of Paul He ...

(1721-1725) was a child prodigy known as "the infant scholar of Lübeck". Beginning in 1724, Heineken studied literature and law at the

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

and the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

. He became a private tutor about 1730, first in the household of Johann Ulrich König, a Dresden court poet, and afterwards with Count Alexander von Sulkowsky. In 1739, he became the private secretary and librarian for Count

Heinrich von Brühl Heinrich, count von Brühl ( pl, Henryk Brühl, 13 August 170028 October 1763), was a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the powerful German von Brühl family. The incumbency of ...

, an important statesman and art collector. In 1746, King

appointed him director of the royal collection of prints and drawings. Tasked with adding to the collection, he developed a wide network of artists, scholars, and collectors. Heineken was interested especially in woodcuts and engravings from the period before

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

and bought many examples for the collection. Among his acquisitions were paintings by

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

and

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

. He was knighted as a ''

Reichsritter The Free Imperial knights (german: link=no, Reichsritter la, Eques imperii) were free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor. They were the remnants of the medieval free nobility (''edelfrei'') and the ministeri ...

'' in 1749. In 1756, at the beginning of the

Seven Years’ War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, the Prussians arrested Heineken and imprisoned him in the Dresden town hall. After the war, he was attacked for financial mismanagement, largely because of his association with Brühl. He was reimprisoned, charged with embezzlement, and dismissed from office. Although acquitted eventually, he was required to leave Dresden. Heineken spent the remainder of his life writing books about art in both German and French. He became known as an expert on the origins of engraving and other forms of printing. Some of his later books were printed by the Leipzig publisher

Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf (Leipzig, 23 November 1719 – 28 January 1794, Leipzig) was a German music publisher and typographer. Biography Breitkopf was the son of the publisher Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, founder of the publishing hous ...

. For a time, Heineken owned

Altdöbern Altdöbern (Lower Sorbian ''Stara Darbnja'') is a municipality in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Altdöbern lies in Lower Lusatia, but is not part of its sorbian inhabited area. The flat landsca ...

Castle, a baroque building in

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

, Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heineken, Carl Heinrich von 1707 births 1791 deaths German art historians Writers from Lübeck Leipzig University alumni University of Halle alumni