As a painter, Johannes van der Heijden left behind a small oeuvre, he mainly worked as a (well-known) lithographer. He mainly lived and worked in Dordrecht, and also spent some time in Haarlem and The Hague. Portraits and genre scenes, in particular candlelit interiors, were his specialty. Van der Heijden also painted cityscapes and landscapes. The Dordrechts Museum has a church interior with figures.