About the Artist

Josef Anton Koch (1768 Oberfibeln/Tirol-1839 Rome) first studied with the sculptor Martin Ignaz Ingerl in Augsburg, and after 1785 with Philip Friedrich Hetsch and Friedrich Harper at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart. From 1791 on he spent time in Strassbourg, Basel, Bern, Biel, and Neuchatel before moving to Italy in 1794. He traveled first to Naples, then settled in Rome except for a period in Vienna between 1812 and 1815, the artist remained in Rome and assumed a central position among the German artists there until his death. It was not until 1803 that he turned to oil painting in the style of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. He spent his summers in the mountains near Civitella and Olevano. In addition to his paintings with individual figures, Koch concentrated in particular on heroic classical landscape from the Roman mountains and the Bern Oberland, themes that were also highly valued by his contemporaries. Among his works are Heroic Landscape with Rainbow, 1805, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe; Italian Landscape with Scouts form the Promised Land, 1816, Wallraf Richartz-Museum, Cologen; and Four Wall Frescoes in the Dante Room, 1826-1829, Casino Massimo, Rome.