Johann Christoph Erhard was a German painter and etcher of the Romantic era.

Johann Christoph Erhard was the son of the Nuremberg silver wire manufacturer Jacob Reinhard Erhard (1738-1812). His older half-brother was the philosopher and physician Johann Benjamin Erhard.

His talent for drawing was already evident in his early youth. He attended the Zwinger drawing school and from 1809 he apprenticed with the Nuremberg copperplate engraver Ambrosius Gabler. There he learned engraving and etching, developing a special inclination for landscapes.

During this period, Erhard was closely associated with the artists Johann Adam Klein and Georg Christoph Wilder; he undertook excursions with them into the surrounding area in order to make studies from nature there. Between 1812 and 1814, the Russian troops that frequently passed through Nuremberg gave him the opportunity to draw horses and military groups.

In 1816 Erhard traveled to Vienna with Johann Adam Klein and studied landscapes and plants in the area. In 1817 he hiked with artist friends in the Schneeberg region , and the following year he visited Upper Austria , Salzburg and the Pinzgau with them. The result of these trips were numerous landscape drawings and etchings, which he also made for art publishers.

In 1819 Erhard went to Rome. There he pursued landscape studies and worked for various art dealers. However, he soon suffered from a severe mental illness, the signs of which had already appeared in Germany. Erhard retired and eventually committed suicide.