(Hildburghausen 1740–1812 Orléans)
Portrait of a gentleman in a blue coat, signed and dated upper left: JHeinsius pinxit/1784,
oil on canvas, 63 x 51 cm, framed

Johann Julius Heinsius has been confused with his less important elder brother Johann Ernst (Ilmenau 1731–1794 Erfurt) since the publication of the monograph by C. Oulmont (Johann Ernst Heinsius - Peintre des Mesdames de France). This has repeatedly led to many inconsistencies in the biographies of the two artists, since as a result of Oulmont’s error they endeavoured to harmonise the chronology of Johann Ernst Heinsius’s life with Johann Julius Heinsius’s oeuvre and place of residence. Until recently scholars referred to only one painter who was active in Weimar and Versailles, Hamburg, Orléans and Thuringia at the same time. For this reason, the oeuvre of the younger Heinsius, one of the most significant portrait painters of the late Ancien Régime, has not yet been duly appreciated. Whilst Johann Ernst Heinsius remained a relatively insignificant artist in Weimar and Rudolstadt, his younger brother, who executed the present portrait in Paris in 1784, had a successful career as a court painter of princesses (“Mesdames”). In 1779 he settled in Paris, where he regularly exhibited in the Salon in the following years. The portraits he executed in this period show considerable talent for observation and refined sensibility in capturing the personality of his sitters. In 1785 Heinsius was commissioned a portrait of Madame Adélaide, one of the daughters of the deceased King Louis XV. A portrait of Madame Victoire followed in 1786. His success was such that he was appointed “Premier Peintre de Mesdames de France”. In 1788, at the height of his career, he was commissioned a portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette, now lost.