Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heins, John Theodore
HEINS, JOHN THEODORE (1732–1771), painter and engraver, born at Norwich in 1732, was son of John Theodore Heins, a German, resident at Norwich, who between 1736 and 1756 painted several portraits of eminent people at Norwich and Cambridge, and engraved a few portraits ‘ad vivum’ in mezzotint, including one of Dr. Gooch, master of Caius College, Cambridge. His will was proved 30 Aug. 1756 by his widow, Abigail. Heins the younger was apprenticed by his father to a stuff manufacturer at Norwich, but preferred to become a painter. Like his father, he painted several portraits of Norwich citizens in a flat, cold manner. He is better known as an engraver and draughtsman. He etched several small plates of portraits and costumes in the manner of T. Worlidge [q. v.], and engraved a few plates after J. Collet [q. v.], one in mezzotint. As a draughtsman he drew the views and monuments, engraved for Bentham's ‘History of Ely Cathedral;’ in 1768 he exhibited at the Society of Artists an inside view of the lantern in the cathedral. He exhibited a portrait with the Free Society of Artists in 1767, and two miniatures with the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1768. A miniature of the mother of Cowper, the poet, by Heins, which occasioned the ‘Lines on the receipt of my Mother's picture out of Norfolk,’ was in the National Portrait Exhibition at South Kensington in 1868. Heins died at Chelsea of a decline in 1771.
[Dodd's manuscript History of English Engravers (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 133401); Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; information from Mr. T. R. Tallack.]