Background
Ernst Heinemann was born on February 19, 1848 in Brunswick, Germany. He was the son of J. August and Marie (Fricke) Heinemann.
Ernst Heinemann was born on February 19, 1848 in Brunswick, Germany. He was the son of J. August and Marie (Fricke) Heinemann.
Heinemann studied under Adolf Closs and Richard Brend'amour of Dusseldorf.
In 1872 Heinemann came to the United States. It was the dawn of the golden age of American reproductive engraving and he was drawn hither by the growing demand for artistic work for magazine and book illustration. On his arrival in New York he at first executed work for Harper's Weekly and other periodicals, and then allied himself for a time with the so-called "shop" of Frederick Juengling, at that date still an old-school engraver.
Soon starting out on an independent career, he showed a command of the possibilities of the block which won him plenty of commissions. He was a contributor to the de luxe edition of Longfellow's poems issued by Houghton, Osgood & Company in 1879. Later he did work for St. Nicholas and the Century.
As the new movement in wood-engraving gained headway, he was influenced by its spirit, but did not, according to Koehler, fall into its heresies. He displayed a quiet elegance and delicacy and a sensitive feeling for the original, which enabled him to render the manner, tone, and texture of a painter's work. He reproduced such strongly contrasted effects as the silvery tone and "airy, translucent manner, " of F. S. Church in "Nymphe des Eaux, " Frans Hals's jovial "Guitar Player, " and the "rich, unctuous" chiaroscuro of Ribot's "Studio. " Weitenkampf cites as his best work, Christopher Plantin's "Proofreaders. "
When the perfecting of cheap photo-mechanical processes put a period to the brilliant success of American wood engravers, Heinemann, like many another good craftsman, was forced to adapt himself to the new order. Thereafter he devoted his skill and his artistic feeling chiefly to the retouching of half-tone plates for schoolbook illustration, and to this impersonal work, in connection with the art department of the American Book Company, he was doomed from 1902 to the close of his life.
An eager attendant at the sketch class of the Art Students' League during his prosperity in the eighties, he now enlivened his years of eclipse and financial struggle by pursuing for his own pleasure the study of painting and produced some delightful sketches in oils and watercolor of the landscape of Staten Island, his home for more than thirty years.
He died at his home at Fort Wadsworth. A memorial exhibition of his work was held at the New York Public Library.
Heinemann was a favorite with the artists of the Salmagundi Club, of which he was long a member.
Heinemann was a typical German of the old school, tall, athletic, soldierly, as befitted a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, genial, bluff and kind-hearted.
On May 4, 1872, Heinemann married Bertha Manzel of Stuttgart.