Beginning in 1724, Heineken studied literature and law at the Leipzig University and the University of Halle.[1] 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.[1] In 1739, he became the private secretary and librarian for Count Heinrich von Brühl, an important statesman and art collector.[1]
In 1746, King Augustus III of Poland appointed him director of the royal collection of prints and drawings.[1] Tasked with adding to the collection, he developed a wide network of artists, scholars, and collectors.[1] Heineken was interested especially in woodcuts and engravings from the period before Albrecht Dürer and bought many examples for the collection.[2] Among his acquisitions were paintings by Correggio and Raphael.[1] He was knighted as a Reichsritter in 1749.[1]
In 1756, at the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, the Prussians arrested Heineken and imprisoned him in the Dresden town hall.[1][2] After the war, he was attacked for financial mismanagement, largely because of his association with Brühl.[2] He was reimprisoned, charged with embezzlement, and dismissed from office.[1][2] Although acquitted eventually, he was required to leave Dresden.[1]
Heineken spent the remainder of his life writing books about art in both German and French.[2] He became known as an expert on the origins of engraving and other forms of printing.[2] Some of his later books were printed by the Leipzig publisher Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf.[2]
