Through the recommendation of Bishop Umgelder (1785), he received academic training in the Karlsschule Stuttgart, a strict military academy.

He etched the pages of Carstens' Les Argonautes, selon Pindar, Orphée et Apollonius de Rhode (Rome, 1799).

In Rome, he espoused a new type of "heroic" landscape, revising the classical compositions of Poussin and Lorrain with a more rugged, mountainous scenery.

[citation needed] Koch returned to Rome, and became a conspicuous figure in the German artists' colony there.

[citation needed] He wrote Moderne Kunstchronik oder die rumfordische Suppe gekocht und geschrieben von J.