François Joseph Heim

François Joseph Heim (16 December 1787 – 29 September 1865) was a French painter known especially for his history paintings and portraits.

Biography He was born at Belfort. His father, Joseph Heim, was a drawing professor. Heim early distinguished himself at the École Centrale of Strasbourg, and in 1803 entered the studio of Vincent at Paris. He was a fellow student of Horace Vernet. He won the second place in the 1806 Prix de Rome. In 1807 he obtained the first prize, and in 1812 he exhibited his picture of "The Arrival of Jacob in Mesopotomia" (Bordeaux Musée des Beaux-Arts) in the Salon, where it won for him a gold medal of the first class. He was again awarded a gold medal in 1817, when he exhibited, together with other works, a St John—bought by Vivant Denon. And Jacob appeared again as he submitted Joseph's Coat Brought Back to Jacob to the Salon of 1817.

In 1819 the Resurrection of Lazarus (Cathedral Autun), the Martyrdom of St Cyr (St Gervais), and two scenes from the life of Vespasian (ordered by the king) attracted attention. In 1823 the Re-erection of the Royal Tombs at St Denis, the Martyrdom of St Laurence (Nôtre Dame) and several full-length portraits increased the painter's popularity; and in 1824, when he exhibited his great canvas, the Massacre of the Jews (Louvre), Heim was rewarded with the Legion of Honour.

Fame arrived for Heim with Charles X Rewarding Artists, and he was regarded as the "Bourbons' appointed artist".

In 1827 appeared the King giving away Prizes at the Salon of 1824 (Louvre; engraved by Jazet), the picture by which Heim is best known, and "Saint Hyacinthe". Fame arrived with Charles X Rewarding Artists, and he was regarded as the "Bourbons' appointed artist". Heim was now commissioned to decorate the Gallery Charles X (Louvre). Though ridiculed by the Romanticists, Heim was elected to the Institute in 1829, Baudelaire called him "an eminent, distinguished artist, a searcher who misses being a fine genius by only a millimetre or a milligram of anything."

The writer Jean-Paul Kauffmann, who was himself a prisoner (1983–1988), having been kidnapped while working as a journalist in Lebanon has praised Heim's work and in particular a work of 1840 in the gallery at Semur-en-Auxois called The Prisoner, of which he said: "The drawing is superb, and the pose conveys the anguish of silent suffering—and the very Caravaggesque sense of light and setting cannot fail to make the viewer curious."

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