Son and pupil of Samuel Frey, Johann Jakob coninued his studies under the supervision of H. Hess at Basel, then in Paris, Munich, Rome and Naples. Frey travelled extensively, to Sicily, and Spain before joining an Egyptian archeological expedition, before moving fianll to Rome, where he married. Frey was favoured by Ludwig I of Bavaria and by the King of Prussia for whom he painted landscape of Italy. Some of these are now in Potsdam. Other works by frey are in the museums of Basel, Leipzig and Munich.