Background
Koch was born in Elbigenalp, Tyrol, Austria, on July 27, 1768. He was the son of an Austrian farmer.
Koch was born in Elbigenalp, Tyrol, Austria, on July 27, 1768. He was the son of an Austrian farmer.
From his early childhood, Joseph Koch was taught to tend cattle. He obtained academic training in the Karlsschule Stuttgart, a strict military academy. Because of his sympathies for the French Revolution he was arrested in 1791 and had to leave school never graduating from it. He then traveled through France and Switzerland.
Koch came to Rome in 1795. He was a close acquaintance of the painter Asmus Jacob Carstens and carried on Carstens' "heroic" art, at first in a literal manner. Joseph Koch etched the pages of Asmus Carstens' Les Argonautes, selon Pindar, Orphée et Apollonius de Rhode (1799). There he also befriended Thorvaldsen. From 1797 onwards he illustrated the works of Homer and Shakespeare.
Joseph Koch received a reputation of a landscape painter after 1800. In Rome he revised the classical compositions of Poussin and Lorrain with a more rugged, mountainous scenery and managed to espouse a new type of "heroic" landscape. In 1812 Koch went to Vienna, where he worked prolifically. He stayed there until 1815. During this period of time, Joseph Koch started to depict more non-classical themes in his paintings. While in Vienna, Koch was greatly influenced by Friedrich Schlegel as well as by enthusiasts of old German art. As a result, his style became more rigorous.
After his return to Rome, there was a group of artist around him that would later be known as the Nazarenes. The group included Peter von Cornelius, Friedrich Overbeck, Wilhelm von Schadow and Philipp Veit. Between 1824 and 1829 Joseph Koch worked on frescoes for the Casino Massimo. Koch created Moderne Kunstchronik oder die rumfordische Suppe gekocht und geschrieben von J. A. Koch (1834) which was humorously directed against unjustifiable criticism and misunderstanding.
His last years were spent in great poverty. Koch continued painting until his death in 1839.
Landschaft Mit St. Georg
Serpentara Landscape with the Procession of the Magi
Guido Da Montefeltre, Vom Teufel Erfaßt
Serpentara Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows at a Spring
Apollo Unter Den Hirten
Waterfalls at Subiaco
Landschaft
Portrait von Johann Michael Wittmer
Mountain Scene
Kloster S. Francesco Di Civitella Im Sabinergebirge
Das Wetterhorn Mit Dem Reichenbachtal
Das Kloster San Francesco Im Sabinergebirge Bei Rom
Tiroler Landsturm
Paolo Da Malatesta and Francesca Da Rimini Surprised by Gianciotto Malatesta
Grindelwald Glacier in the Alps.
Das Lauterbrunner Tal
Lauterbrunnental Nach Norden
The Death of Oscar (from the Poems of Ossian)
Monastery of San Francesco Di Civitella in the Sabine Mountains
The Upland near Bern
Raub Der Proserpina
Landschaft Bei Olevano
Bildnis Von Karl Vom Holtz
Antenora, Ugolino Mit Seinen Söhnen Im Turm Des Hungers.
Berner Oberland
Macbeth Und Die Hexen
Wasserfall Bei Tivoli
Oedipus and Antigone Leave Thebes
Noah's Offers up Thanks
The Painter as Hercules at the Crossroads
Dante and Virgil Carried by the Monster Geryon
Sühneschiff Und Läuterungsberg Aus Dem Purgatorio
The Schmadribach Falls
Landschaft Bei Olevano Mit Reitendem Mönch
Heroic Landscape with Rainbow
Landscape with Bileam
Die Serpentara Bei Olevano
Waterfall in the Bern Highlands
Die Cascatellen Von Tivoli
Ruth Auf Dem Acker Des Boas
Italienische Gebirgslandschaft
Dante and Vergil Meet the Wild Animals in the Forest
Das Kloster San Francesco Im Sabinergebirge Bei Rom
Römische Landschaft
Landschaft Mit Dem Dankopfer Noahs
Landscape with Shepherds and Cows and at the Spring
Das Franziskuskloster in Den Sabiner Bergen
Opfer Noahs
Heroic Landscape with Rainbow
Landschaft Mit Den Kundschaftern Aus Dem Gelobten Lande
Schlucht Im Walde
Bildnis Von Gottfried Vom Holtz
Waterfall near Subiaco
Dante and Virgil in the Second Circle in Hell
Der Grimselpaß
Tiberlandschaft
Landschaft Nach Einem Gewitter
Italienische Landschaft Mit Don Quichotte
Landscape with Abraham and the Three Angels in the Valley of Mambre
Inferno, Canto Xii, Lines 98-139
l'inferno di dante
Karikatur Auf Den Oberaufseher Leutnant Johann Nieß
Battle of Satan with St. Francis for the Soul of the Monk Guido of Montefeltro