Although Jerzy Heintze rather quickly tied his professional path to book illustration, he had many passions outside of it. The greatest of these – and one that influenced his work – was entomology. Heintze treated his exploration of insects not as a hobby, but, despite his lack of academic training in this field, actually as a second profession. He bred butterflies, conducted scientific research into their life, and was a member of the Polish Entomological Society. The result to this day is the highly-regarded atlas Motyle Polski [Butterflies of Poland], whose illustrations are as captivating for their painterly charm as for their documentary precision (some said that in Heintze’s drawings you can even see the pollen on the butterflies’ wings, unfortunately these nuances disappeared in the imperfect printing).
Indeed, what distinguishes the work of Jerzy Heintze from the numerous authors associated with Nasza Księgarnia is his great sensitivity to nature, his ability to faithfully depict the appearance of an insect, animal or plant in a form that is also very visually attractive. In addition to the butterfly atlas, Jerzy Heintze has also created other books introducing readers to the world of flora and fauna. These include the volumes Mieszkańcy Rzeki [River Dwellers], Mieszkańcy Jeziora [Lake Dwellers], the postcard series Bardzo Dziwne Owady [Very Strange Insects] or the book devoted to the species of nocturnal butterflies Najpiękniejsze Sfinksy Polskie [The Most Beautiful Polish Sphinxes]. In Urszula Żółtowska-Tomaszewska’'s reportage Polowanie na Motyle [Hunting Butterflies], prepared by the Polish Radio Programme 1, Jerzy Heintze’s son recalls that the artist was also involved in popularising knowledge about insects, took part in natural history radio and television programmes, and answered letters from viewers and readers relating to the life of butterflies and other insect species.
Jerzy Heintze enjoyed illustrating encyclopaedias, lexicons, atlases, popular science books on nature and entomology. He created dozens of illustrations for children’s books; and in these, too, nature was the dominant theme, books about animals, plants, seasons of the year, natural and atmospheric phenomena. Jerzy Heintze also made animals the protagonists of another of his works – the opening credits for Krzysztof Zanussi’s 1976 film Camouflage. The names of the actors and filmmakers appear here in the company of drawings depicting birds, fish and amphibians. In the aforementioned radio report, the illustrator’s son mentions another unusual commission, which Jerzy Heintze undertook: at the request of the militia, he prepared drawings for the creation of memory portraits, separate panels with different eyebrows, moustaches, noses, mouths, etc., which could be superimposed, exchanged, and adjusted until the most accurate image was obtained.
At a time when it was more difficult to make a living from illustrating books, Jerzy Heintze used his knowledge from medical studies by working as a dental technician. In addition, he studied opera singing, played the piano and wrote aphorisms.
Translated by Patryk M. Grabowski