The son of a baker, Franz Hoch was a pupil first of the landscape painter Emil Lugo in his native city of Freiburg, and later studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, under Gustav Schönleber and Leopold von Kalckreuth. In 1898, the artist settled on the Wörthsee near Munich, and came to be associated with the local artist’s society known as Die Scholle, founded in 1899.

Hoch worked as a landscape painter, draughtsman, etcher and colour lithographer, and also produced a number of fine book illustrations.