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Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse

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JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM HEINSE (1749-1803), German author, was born at Langewiesen near Ilmenau in Thuringia on the 16th of February 1749. After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and Erfurt. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland and through him with "Father" Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg. In 1774 he went to Dusseldorf, where he assisted the poet J. G. Jacobi to edit the periodical Iris. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780-1783). He returned to Dusseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where he died on the 22nd of June 1803.

The work upon which Heinse's fame mainly rests is Ardinghello and die gliickseligen Inseln (1787), a novel which forms the framework for the exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the "Sturm and Drang." Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the romantic school.

Heinse's complete works (Seimtliche Schriften ) were published by H. Laube in to vols. (Leipzig, 1838). A new edition by C. Schiiddekopf is in course of publication (Leipzig, 1901 sqq.). See H. Prohle, Lessing, Wieland, Heinse (Berlin, 1877), and J. Schober, Johann Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben and seine Werke (Leipzig, 1882); also K. D. Jessen, Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst (Berlin, 1903).