Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, (6 July 1834 – 12 December 1890) was an Austrian-born British medallist and sculptor, best known for the "Jubilee head" of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of public works and private commissions. A speciality of Boehm's was the portrait bust; there are many examples of these in the National Portrait Gallery. He was often commissioned by the Royal Family and members of the aristocracy to make sculptures for their parks and gardens. His works were many, and he exhibited 123 of them at the Royal Academy from 1862 to his death in 1890.

Biography

Boehm (originally "Böhm") was born in Vienna of Hungarian parentage. His father, Josef Daniel Böhm, was a court medal maker and the director of the imperial mint in Vienna. From 1848 to 1851 Boehm studied in London at Leigh's academy of art, the forerunner of the Heatherley School of Fine Art.

In 1862, Boehm settled in London, where he exhibited coins and medals at the 1862 International Exhibition, opened a studio and had his first work, a terracotta bust, shown at the Royal Academy. His portrait subjects included John Everett Millais, Stratford Canning and Charles Thomas Newton and Franz Liszt.

right|thumb|Boehm by J. P. Mayall from Artists at Home, published 1884

Boehm was often commissioned by members of the aristocracy to make equestrian and equine sculptures for the parks and gardens of their stately homes. His large sculpture of the stallion King Tom (1874) was commissioned by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild for his new mansion, Mentmore Towers in 1873, and moved to Dalmeny House near Edinburgh in 1982. His large animal works include the marble Young Bull and Herdsman (1887) and Saint George and the Dragon (1885), both of which were exhibited at the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition during 1888 and 1889. The work was bought by the grandson of Alfred Bird, Captain Oliver Bird for £300 in April 1944 and gifted to Solihull Council to place in one of their parks.

In 1869, Boehm's work came to the attention of Queen Victoria and he rapidly gained favour with the royal court. In total, throughout his career, Boehm completed over forty royal commissions. He won several commissions to create statues of Victoria to mark her Golden Jubilee, several of which were replica designs, which was a common and accepted practice at the time.

Boehm's designs were used on a series of medals minted to mark events in the Queen's reign. These included the Golden Jubilee, her Diamond Jubilee and for the Visit to Ireland Medal 1900. In 1887, Boehm designed and executed the model for the dies for a series of coins known as the Jubilee coinage, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. The coins are signed J.E.B. below the shoulder. This design was severely criticised by his peers as well as the public and was replaced in 1893. The coins depicted the royal arms in the Order of the Garter on the reverse. As a result, the sixpences were frequently gilded and passed off as gold half sovereigns. Therefore, the sixpence reverted to its standard design.

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File:Sovereign Victoria 1842 662015.jpg|Queen Victoria, 1842 sovereign 662015

File:The New Zealand Medal, granted by Queen Victoria, after 1866, to commemorate the campaigns of 1845–1847 and 1860–1866 MET DP-180-166.jpg|The New Zealand Medal, awarded after 1866

File:Commemoration Medal for Thomas Carlyle LACMA 79.4.41 (2 of 5).jpg|Commemoration Medal for Thomas Carlyle

File:Retro Pattern Crown 1887 Victoria Joseph Boehm.jpg| Queen Victoria crowned Jubilee head, 1887

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Boehm's early portrait busts led, later in his career, to him undertaking a total of fifty-seven church monuments and memorial works, including several in British cathedrals. On the death of Dean Stanley, Boehm was commissioned to execute his sarcophagus in Westminster Abbey. The Abbey also houses Boehm's memorials to Lord Beaconsfield and to Viscount Canning, plus his marble statue of the Earl of Shaftesbury. His monument to Archbishop Tait is in Canterbury Cathedral. (from 1883 Boehm lived at 25 Wetherby Gardens, a house designed for him by Robert William Edis and built by William Willett). Boehm encouraged and supported several younger artists and sculptors, most notably Édouard Lantéri, Alfred Gilbert and Alfred Drury.

There is a memorial to Boehm in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Public works

1870–1879

1880–1884

1885–1889

Other works

  • The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds several plaster and terracotta pieces by Boehm plus a bronze figure, Herdsman with Bull, and also a terracotta statuette of Thomas Carlyle
  • Marble busts of Charles Thomas Newton, from 1863, and of Austen Henry Layard, from 1890, both in the British Museum collection
  • Bronze statue of Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook, Old Flagstaff House, Barrackpore, India
  • Bronze statue of Queen Victoria, a replica of the Windsor Castle statue, erected 1887, Chapeauk Park, Chennai
  • Marble effigy of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch in St Mary's Church, Dalkeith begun by Boehm and completed by Alfred Gilbert in 1892.
  • Marble statue of Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford in Highcliffe Castle, Highcliffe, Dorset. Commissioned by her friends and delivered in 1875
  • Two angels in marble in St Bartholomew's Church, Corsham, Wiltshire as a memorial to Lady Methuen, wife of the owner of Corsham Court. The plaster models are at the court. It is believed these were delivered in 1875.
  • Marble effigy on tomb chest of Juliana, Countess of Leicester, commissioned by her husband Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester and erected in St Withburga's Church, Holkham, Norfolk c.1871.

References

  • Images of works by Boehm in the Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive