Sir (Joseph) Edgar Boehm Bart, RA
Other names: Josef Erasmus Böhm
Born 4 July 1834
Died 12 December 1890
Active: 1848 - 1890
Country of birth: Austria
Country of death: England
Sculptor, medallist
Born in Vienna, Austria. He was the son of Josef Daniel Böhm (1794–1865), court medallist, engraver, and director of the imperial mint at Vienna. Joseph (the younger) studied at Leigh's art academy (later Heatherley's) in London between 1848 and 1851, he then returned to Vienna, where he studied medal design and modelling at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste and then visited Italy and worked in Paris (1859-62).
On his marriage in 1862, Joseph settled in London using his European experience to establish a distinctive style. Portraiture was a central element of his practice and his sitters included William Makepeace Thackeray, James Whistler, John Ruskin, Thomas Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Franz Liszt. Boehm also made some fifty-seven church monuments, including those in Westminster Abbey to Benjamin Disraeli (1881–3) and Arthur Stanley (1882–4).
In 1869 Boehm's work attracted the attention of Queen Victoria which led to an association that lasted until his death in 1890. He received over forty royal commissions and gave lessons to Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's daughter. In 1880 he was appointed sculptor-in-ordinary to the queen and in 1889 was created a baronet. Among the works commissioned by the Queen were the effigies of her father, the duke of Kent (1872–4), and her daughter Princess Alice (1878–80), both in the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, Windsor.
Boehm also produced some fifty-seven public statues and monuments of which the most famous is the life-sized statue of Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea Embankment Gardens, London (1882). Other statues include: Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne (1877, Waterloo Place, London); John Bunyan (1872–4, St Peter's Green, Bedford) and Sir Francis Drake (1882–3, Tavistock, Devon; 1882–4, The Hoe, Plymouth) and 'Cupid and the Mermaid' (1889). One of his most ambitious monuments, to the duke of Wellington (1884–8, Hyde Park Corner, London) was less successful and damaged his reputation.
He was elected a full Royal Academician in 1881. This was close to the date of his election to the academies in Rome and Florence in 1880 and 1881 respectively, and to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna in 1890. There are examples of his work are in the Royal Collection; the Tate collection; the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; St George's Chapel, Windsor; and Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Wealth at death: £67,372 6s. 10d.
Resworn probate
Probate date: December 1891
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Her Majesty Queen Victoria
1876 (Presumed)
Queen Anne
1876 (Presumed)
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, taken just previous to his visit to India
1876 (Presumed)
Princess Maude of Wales
1876 (Presumed)
Thomas Carlyle Seated
1876 (Presumed)
Mary, daughter of J. E. Millais, RA
1876
Effie, daughter of J. E. Millais, RA
1876 (Presumed)
Little May
1876 (Presumed)
The Clydesdale Stallion, with his leader
1876 (Presumed)
Pair of equestrian bronzes of the Duke of Beaufort and Capt. Anstruther Thomson
1876 (Presumed)
Group of a Horseman, carrying off a lady
1876 (Presumed)
Terra-Cotta Bust of the Late Lord Lawrence
1887 (Circa)
Locations
Address 34 Euston Square London | View on map
1862 - 1891
Exhibited 30 times, average 4 works per year. Exhibited posthumously in 1891.
Address 34 Onslow Square London | View on map
1871
Address 78 Cornwall Gardens Chelsea London | View on map
1881
Studio located at 2, 4, 14 and 15 The Avenue London | View on map
1890 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, 1868
Multiple works
Exhibited at Aberdeen Artists' Society Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, 1887
Multiple works
Exhibited at Dublin Exhibition of Arts, Industries and Manufactures (and Loan Museum of Works of Art), 1872
1872
Fine Arts, Sculpture.
p. 83, no. 94:' J.E. Millais, R.A.
p. 83, no. 95:' Bust of a Lady'.
Both owned by the artist.
Exhibited at Art Treasures Exhibition of North Wales and The Border Counties at Wrexham, 1876
22 July 1876 - 1876
Exhibition committee member for The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The One Hundred and Fifteenth, 1883
13 April 1883 - 23 April 1883
Responsible for the arrangement of sculpture. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1883', 1884, p. 27.
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected ARA Royal Academy of Arts
16 January 1878 - 6 February 1882
Elected RA in 1882
Elected RA Royal Academy of Arts
6 February 1882 - 12 December 1890
Died in 1890.
Lectured at Royal Academy Schools
7 January 1879 - 1885
Delivered one lecture on sculpture on the 7 January, 1879. See 'Annual Report, 1879', (1880), p. 19 and p. 54. Lectured again on the 6 March, 1882. See 'Annual Report, 1882', (1883), p. 49. Boehm also lectured on sculpture in 1885. See 'Annual Report, 1885', (1886), p. 19.
Member of council Royal Academy of Arts
1883 - 1884
Served as a Member of the Council. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Reports'.
Visitor at Royal Academy Schools
1879 - 1886
Visitor to the Life School. From 1882 onwards, Boehm is listed as a visitor to the School of Modelling from the Life. See Royal Academy 'Annual Report, 1881', (1882), p. 35.
Personal and Professional Connections
Employed as studio assistant (Edward) Alfred Briscoe Drury
Based on Stocker (2004).
Employed as studio assistant Alfred Gilbert
Based on Stocker (2004).
Employed as studio assistant Robert Glassby Snr
1870 (Circa) - 1890
Glassby was principal studio assistant and completed some works on Boehm's death
Employed as studio assistant Edouard Lanteri
1872 - 1890
Lanteri received the offer of employment through Jules Dalou (Stocker, ODNB).
Forrer, vol. 3, (1907), p. 302, notes Lanteri's position as Boehm's assistant.
Employed as studio assistant George James Frampton
1890
Nominated by William Boxall
1870
For RA.
Nominator of Edward Onslow Ford
8 December 1881
For RA.
Seconded by George Frederic Watts
1870
For RA.
Seconder of Alfred Gilbert
30 January 1884
For RA.
Descriptions of Practice
Listed as medallist Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume I, 1902 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed as a medallist and sculptor. Born in Vienna and worked in England from 1862 onwards. Son of J. D. Boehm who was a medallist and gem engraver. Produced a number of medals including in 1875 (commemorating Thomas Carlyle), 1862 (General Charles Richard Fox) and 'cut the dies for the obverse of the Jubilee issue of coins, 1887': see Forrer, vol. 1, (1902), p. 97-98. References given by Forrer include F. P. Weber, 'English Medals by Foreign Artists' (1894).
Listed as medallist Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume III, 1907 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed in Forrer, vol. 3, (1907), p. 14, under 'I. E. B. Vide Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1834-1890. Sculptor and Medallist, who resided in London, 1862-1890' [summary].
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1890 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1890
p.1997
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871
'Sculptor'
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881
'Sculptor to the Queen'
Sources
Annual Report from the Council of The Royal Academy to the General Assembly of Academicians for the Year 1885, 1886 Royal Academy Annual Reports
1886
pp. 19, 31, 49
Catalogue of the Art Treasures Exhibition of North Wales and the Border Counties
1876
Catalogue of the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds 1868
1868
Cat. Nos. 606, 838, pp. 204, 213
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871
2004
RG10 piece 52 folio 18 page 28
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881
2004
Class: RG11; Piece: 51; Folio: 54; Page: 34; GSU roll: 1341011
Official Catalogue of the Dublin Exhibition of Arts, Industries and Manufactures and Loan Museum of Works of Art, 1872
1872
Fine Arts, Sculpture.
p. 83, no. 94:' J.E. Millais, R.A.
p. 83, no. 95:' Bust of a Lady'.
Both owned by the artist.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Mark Stocker, ‘Boehm, Sir (Joseph) Edgar , baronet (1834–1890)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2762, accessed 21 Jan 2009]
Post Office London Directory, 1890 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1890
p.1997
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1866-1906
1906
See entries for 1870, 1881, 1884.
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Minutes of Council Meetings No. 1, 1905-1913
19 May 1913
13 January 1908.
Citing this record
'Sir (Joseph) Edgar Boehm Bart, RA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1213799161, accessed 26 Mar 2023]
