25 February 1795 Born in Nuremberg as son of a silver wire manufacturer
1805 – 1809 Training in the city drawing school in Nuremberg
1809 Apprenticeship in the workshop of the painter and graphic artist Ambrosius Gabler | Excursions to the Nuremberg area, the Franconian Switzerland and Upper Palatinate | Founding of the artist friendship with Georg Christoph Wilder, Conrad Wießner and Johann Adam Klein
1811 First etchings | More independent development after Klein’s departure to Vienna | Commissioned by the Nuremberg art dealer and publisher Johann Friedrich Frauenholz
1815 Again under the influence of the returning Klein | Drawings of soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars
June 1816 Joint trip to Vienna with Johann Adam Klein | Acquaintance with Heinrich Reinhold and Friedrich Philipp Reinhold, Ernst Welker and Johann Nepomuk Passini
1817 Trip to Höllental and Schneeberg
Summer 1818 Trip to Berchtesgaden and the Salzkammergut together with the brothers Reinhold, Welker and Klein
1818/19 Good order situation and creation of many etchings | Beginning depression and progressive abdominal disease
October 1819 Departure to Rome with Heinrich Reinhold
November 1819 Arrival in Rome | Accommodation with Johann Joachim Faber | Acquaintance with Joseph Anton Koch and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld | Increasing depression
Summer 1820 High productivity | Drawings in Rome and the Campagna Romana
December 1820 Suicide attempt by drinking acid | Treatment by the personal physician of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, Johann Nepomuk Ringseis
July 1821 Nursed by Johann Joachim Faber, his wife and Heinrich Reinhold in Olevano
November 1821 Last etching “View of Olevano“
1822 On January 18, attempted suicide by a shot in the throat | emergency baptism at the request of Catholic friends
Johann Christoph Erhard dies of the consequences of the serious injury on 20 January 1822
