(b Saaralben, Lorraine, 6 Dec 1788; d Munich, 21 Feb 1861). German soldier, painter and printmaker of Swiss descent. He took drawing lessons in Zurich from Johann Heinrich Meyer (1755–1829), Johann Caspar Huber (1752–1827) and Konrad Gessner. In 1801 he studied briefly in Munich under Domenico Quaglio II. Towards the end of 1815 or shortly afterwards he returned to Munich, where Johann Christian von Mannlich instructed him in landscape painting. Hitherto Heideck had worked exclusively in watercolours and gouache but from 1816 onwards he also began to paint in oils. He first exhibited in 1823, showing a painting entitled Bavarian Woodcutters at the Munich Akademie, of which he was elected an honorary member in 1824. In 1829, on his return to Munich from Greece, he paid a lengthy visit to Rome, returning there again in 1842. Having concurrently pursued a distinguished military career, he began to paint full-time in 1835. His campaigns in the Tyrol, the Iberian Peninsula and Greece provided him with valuable material for his paintings and he became a frequent exhibitor both in Munich and in Berlin. His output was varied and included not only battle-pieces and other military subjects, such as Philhellene Camp during the Greek War of Independence (1835; Karlsruhe, Staatl. Ksthalle), but also genre paintings and topographical landscapes recording views and architectural sites, especially in Greece (e.g. View of the Acropolis, 1835; Munich, Neue Pin.) and Spain. He is also known to have produced a few etchings and lithographs.