HEUSCH

heusch, willem, or guilliam de, a dutch landscape painter in the 17th century at utrecht. the dates of this artist's birth and death are unknown. nothing certain is recorded of him except that he presided over the gild of utrecht, whilst cornelis poelemburg, jan both and jan weenix formed the council of that body, in 1649. according to the majority of historians, heusch was born in 1638, and was taught by jan both. but each of these statements seems open to doubt; and although it is obvious that the style of heusch is identical with that of both, it may be that the two masters during their travels in italy fell under the influence of claude lorraine, whose "arcadian" art they imitated. heusch certainly painted the same effects of evening in wide expanses of country varied by rock formations and lofty thin-leaved arborescence as both. there is little to distinguish one master from the other, except that of the two both is perhaps the more delicate colourist. the gild of utrecht in the middle of the 17th century was composed of artists who clung faithfully to each other. poelemburg, who painted figures for jan both, did the same duty for heusch. sometimes heusch sketched landscapes for the battlepieces of molenaer. the most important examples of heusch are in the galleries of the hague and rotterdam, in the belvedere at vienna, the stadel at frankfort and the louvre. his pictures are signed with the full name, beginning with a monogram combining a g (for guilliam), d and h. heusch's etchings, of which thirteen are known, are also in the character of those of both. after guilliam there also flourished at utrecht his nephew, jacob de heusch, who signs like his uncle, substituting an initial j for the initial g. he was born at utrecht in 1657, learnt drawing from his uncle, and travelled early to rome, where he acquired friends and patrons for whom he executed pictures after his return. he settled for a time at berlin, but finally retired to utrecht, where he died in 1701. jacob was an "arcadian," like his relative, and an imitator of both, and he chiefly painted italian harbour views. but his pictures are now scarce. two of his canvases, the "ponte rotto" at rome, in the brunswick gallery, and a lake harbour with shipping in the lichtenstein collection at vienna, are dated 1696. a harbour with a tower and distant mountains, in the belvedere at vienna, was executed in 1699. other examples may be found in english private galleries, in the hermitage of st petersburg and the museums of rouen and montpellier. hevelius [hevel or howelcke], johann (1611-1687), german astronomer, was born at danzig on the 28th of january 1611. he studied jurisprudence at leiden in 1630; travelled in england and france; and in 1634 settled in his native town as a brewer and town councillor. from 1639 his chief interest became centred in astronomy, though he took, throughout his life, a leading part in municipal affairs. in 1641 he built an observatory in his house, provided with a splendid instrumental outfit, including ultimately a tubeless telescope of 150 ft. focal length, constructed by himself. it was visited, on the 29th of january 1660, by john ii. and maria gonzaga, king and queen of poland. hevelius made observations of sun-spots, 1642-1645, devoted four years to charting the lunar surface, discovered the moon's libration in longitude, and published his results in _selenographia_ (1647), a work which entitles him to be called the founder of lunar topography. he discovered four comets in the several years 1652, 1661, 1672 and 1677, and suggested the revolution of such bodies in parabolic tracks round the sun. on the 26th of september 1679, his observatory, instruments and books were maliciously destroyed by fire, the catastrophe being described in the preface to his _annus climactericus_ (1685). he promptly repaired the damage, so far as to enable him to observe the great comet of december 1680; but his health suffered from the shock, and he died on the 28th of january 1687. among his works were: _prodromus cometicus_ (1665); _cometographia_ (1668); _machina coelestis_ (first part, 1673), containing a description of his instruments; the second part (1679) is extremely rare, nearly the whole issue having perished in the conflagration of 1679. the observations made by hevelius on the variable star named by him "mira" are included in _annus climactericus_. his catalogue of 1564 stars appeared posthumously in _prodromus astronomiae_ (1690). its value was much impaired by his preference of the antique "pinnules" to telescopic sights on quadrants. this led to an acrimonious controversy with robert hooke. in an _atlas_ of 56 sheets, corresponding to his catalogue, and entitled _firmamentum sobiescianum_ (1690), he delineated seven new constellations, still in use. hevelius had his book printed in his own house, at lavish expense, and himself not only designed but engraved many of the plates. see j. h. westphal, _leben, studien, und schriften des astronomen johann hevelius_ (1820); c. b. lengnich, _anekdoten und nachrichten_ (1780); _allgemeine deutsche biographie_ (c. bruhns); j. b. j. delambre, _histoire de l'astronomie moderne_, ii. 471; j. f. weidler, _historia astronomiae_, p. 486; f. baily's edition of the catalogue of hevelius, _memoirs roy. astr. society_, xiii. (1843); r. wolf, _geschichte der astronomie_, p. 396; j. c. poggendorff, _biog.-lit. handworterbuch_. for an account of the epistolary remains of hevelius, see c. g. hecker, _monatl. correspondenz_, viii. 30; also _astr. nachrichten_, vols. xxiii., xxiv. (a. m. c.)