Joseph Anton Koch

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Johann Michael Wittmer : Portrait of Joseph Anton Koch , around 1830
Theodor Rehbenitz : Portrait of the painter Joseph Anton Koch , 1830
Friedrich Preller the Elder : Joseph Anton Koch , 1830
Cook (2nd from left) in the Osteria (caricature by Bonaventura Genelli )
Epitaph, Rome, Campo Santo Teutonico
Heroic Landscape with a Rainbow , 1805, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Joseph Anton Koch (born July 27, 1768 in Obergiblen near Elbigenalp in the Lechtal , Tyrol ; † January 12, 1839 in Rome ) was an Austrian painter of the Biedermeier period .

Life

Koch was the son of a Tyrolean house owner who taught himself his earliest artistic steps. He received his first training in Augsburg , where he belonged to the workshop of the sculptor Ignaz Ingerl . On the occasion of his confirmation in 1785, he received a grant from the Prince-Bishop of Augsburg, Clemens Wenzeslaus von Sachsen . This enabled him to attend the Hohe Carlsschule in Stuttgart as a pupil , where he was to receive extensive artistic training. However, from 1791 Koch sympathized with the ideas of the French Revolution , so that he was arrested for "political suspicion" and threatened with relegation by the school administration. He anticipated the sanction and left school without a qualification. Koch's caricature on art practice at the Hohen Karlsschule dates from this time .

Koch joined a circle of Jacobins , first in Strasbourg and in 1792 in Biel , Switzerland . His long walks through the alpine valleys were reflected in his later landscapes .

In 1794, with a grant from his patron George Nott , Koch was able to travel to Italy as far as Naples . He visited Salerno and Paestum in 1795 and finally settled in Rome , where he studied with the German classicist Asmus Jakob Carstens , whose figure compositions he leaned on in his own pictures. In the vicinity of Carstens, Koch u. a. also the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen , with whom he became friends.

Since 1797 he worked as a draftsman and etcher and illustrated works by Homer and Shakespeare . After a stay in Vienna (1812–1815), Koch returned to Rome and became one of the outstanding personalities in the circle of artists of the Luke Brothers , who later became known as the Nazarenes . This group of young artists, including Peter von Cornelius , Joseph von Führich , Friedrich Overbeck , Franz Pforr , Wilhelm von Schadow , Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Philipp Veit , soon gathered around Koch and based himself artistically on him.

At the suggestion of the painter Gottlieb Schick , whom he knew from the Hohen Karlsschule, Koch devoted himself increasingly to oil painting from around 1803 , following the French models Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain . From 1803 Koch began to explore the surrounding area of ​​Rome. He was accompanied by his colleague Johann Christian Reinhart . Friedrich Olivier and Franz Horny later followed in the same footsteps.

In 1806 Koch married Cassandra Ranaldi, who was the same age. He had three children with her. The famous 19th century architect Gaetano Koch is a descendant of Joseph Anton Koch. The painter Johann Michael Wittmer became his son-in-law.

Peter von Cornelius entrusted him with parts of the painting of the Casino Massimo, where Koch worked from 1824 to 1829 on a cycle of frescoes for Dante's “ Divine Comedy ”.

Koch painted until the end of his life, but remained poor despite artistic recognition. Only a few weeks before his death, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria offered him a generous pension. Joseph Anton Koch died at the age of 71 on January 12, 1839 in the Palazzo Galoppi near the Quattro Fontane . He found his final resting place in the Vatican on Campo Santo Teutonico next to St. Peter's Basilica .

Joseph Anton Koch's late work is characterized by the peculiar combination of figural compositions with large landscape panoramas. The surfaces are sharply contoured and kept in clear, bright colors. In spite of all the attention to detail, the emphasis is on the harmonious composition of the Alpine and Latium landscapes, with the idealizing and mythicizing intention being unmistakable. The painting Der Schmadribachfall (second version in the Neue Pinakothek , Munich ) from 1805–1811 is considered by the professional world to be the beginning of the representation of a mountain landscape itself; the landscape theme is worthy of the picture and not just used as a background. However, it is not yet about the exact, topographically correct retention of nature, but a heroic landscape is shown, a conflict-free world, the unity of nature and man. Behind this new subject is a reorientation of society, in the 18th century the mountains were still seen as something threatening, and alpine tourism only began in the 19th century.

Works (excerpt)

The Bernese Oberland , 1815, Belvedere , Vienna
The Tiroler Landsturm in 1809 , around 1820, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum , Innsbruck
Dante and Virgil, fresco

The following were destroyed in the major fire of the Munich Glass Palace (1931):

  • Landscape with Balaam
  • Landscape with St. George
  • The Grimsel Pass
  • Guido da Montefeltre, captured by the devil
  • Waterfall at Tivoli
  • Landscape near Olevano
  • The Castacelles of Tivoli
  • Bernese Oberland
  • Landscape (exact title unknown)

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Anton Koch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wankmiller / Printschler (2019), pp. 177–200, list the grandparents, parents, siblings and cook in detail using the entries in the various church registers. They illustrate the poverty in which the artist grew up in the Lechtal.
  2. ↑ Blog Städelmuseum: Koch paintings returned to the Städel after 70 years
  3. ↑ Blog Städelmuseum: Koch paintings returned to the Städel after 70 years
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Joseph Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter of the Biedermeier period
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1768
PLACE OF BIRTH Obergiblen near Elbigenalp , Lechtal , Tyrol
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1839
Place of death Rome