Joseph Edgar Boehm British, 1834-1890

Sylvia Phyllis Adams collection,
sold in the Adams sale, Bonhams, 9 May 1996, lot 110

Boehm is generally considered one of the more colourful British sculptors of the last quarter of the 19th century, although he was born in Vienna, the son of a distinguished Hungarian medal engraver, and only settled in England at the age of 28 in 1862. After studying in his native city he travelled to Italy and spent three years in Paris.  He brought to England a more spontaneous and theatrical approach to modelling which contrasted with the prevailing somewhat dry late neo-classical style, and found a particularly receptive audience amongst clients interested in aristocratic portraiture (both human and equestrian).  Queen Victoria provided royal approval with three commissions in 1869, after which he was appointed sculpture tutor to Princess Louise, became the first Sculptor in Ordinary, and was made a baronet in 1889.

Stocker dates Boehm's Eurydice to 1874, making it his earliest known mythological subject. Eurydice was followed by Galatea in 1877 and the Nymph in 1878. Stocker notes that the life-sized  marble was presented to the Bristol Art Gallery at the end of the 19th century but sold in 1959.

Related literature: Stocker, pp.281-282