The Mysterious Death of Joseph Boehm
I can already hear you asking who Joseph Boehm is. Don’t worry, I didn’t know either. He was a Victorian era sculptor and artist. We’ll talk about his work and of course his scandalous and mysterious death.
Joseph Boehm - The Artist
Boehm was born on July 6, 1834 in Vienna. His father was a court medal maker and the head of the imperial mint in the city. He was surrounded by coins and sculpture from an early age. At 14 he started studying at Leigh’s Academy of Art in London (now called the Heatherley School of Fine Art). At 17-years-old he returned to Vienna where he studied model making and medal design before working in Paris and Italy. In 1856 he was awarded the First Imperial Prize for Sculpture in Vienna. Bit of a nepo baby in the metal making and sculpture world if you ask me.
In 1862 he settled down in London where he exhibited coins and medals at the 1862 International Exhibition. Throughout the 1860s he started leaning more towards making busts creating them for important clients of the day including Viscount Stratford Canning, painter John Everett Millais, composer and conductor Franz Liszt, and author William Makepiece Thackeray.
This lead to Boehm being commissioned often by members of the aristocracy to create equestrian-themed sculptures for their estates. Then in 1869, Boehm’s work caught the attention of Queen Victoria herself and he quickly gained her favour as well as the court’s. He created a statue of the Queen out of white marble that is considered one of his great early works. Throughout Boehm’s career he completed over 40 royal commissions including several sculptures of the Queen to mark her Golden Jubilee.
Boehm’s early work in medal making also came in handy as he was commissioned to create various commemorative medals marking different moments in Queen Victoria’s reign including her Golden Jubilee, Diamond Jubilee, and her visit to Ireland in 1900.
So it’s easy to see that he was very successful, he had lots of wealthy clients and patrons. What could possibly be so scandalous about that??
Joseph Boehm - The Scandal
Well, I’ll tell you. First we have to talk a little bit about one of Queen Victoria’s daughters, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. She was the sixth child and fourth daughter of the Queen and some refer to her as the rebellious daughter. She was a strong proponent of the arts, higher education for women and a strong believer in the feminist cause. She also happened to be a very accomplished sculptor and artist with many of her sculptures still remaining today. And guess who her sculpture tutor was. I’ll give you one guess.
That’s right. It was none other than Joseph Boehm. I think you can maybe see where this is going. There were rumours that the two of them were lovers, and if you think about it, that would be a pretty smart person for Louise to have an affair with. She had been his student for a while so the two of them meeting up, even alone, at his studio wouldn’t really have raised any eyebrows. Putting aside for a moment that Boehm was married, they both knew that he would never have been considered a suitable candidate for a Princess’ husband even if he was available but there are no rules for having an affair (except I guess don’t have one, but I digress).
Anyways, it’s likely that they were having an affair and then all of a sudden Boehm drops dead of a burst blood vessel one day in 1890 (at 56 years old) while he and Louise are alone in his studio. It was simply reported that he “died suddenly on 12 December 1890 at his home, The Avenue, 76 Fulham Road, London” (Victorian Web, 2021). However, I’m sure there’s more to that story and many people, including a woman who wrote a whole book about Princess Louise, believe that he died during a sexual encounter with the princess. We will likely never know for sure but it’s an interesting end to an accomplished life.
Works Cited
Cahn, Lauren. “13 Strangest Unsolved Mysteries of the Art World”. Readers Digest. https://www.readersdigest.com.au/uncategorized/13-strangest-unsolved-mysteries-of-the-art-world
“Sir Joseph Edgar Bohem, Bart., R.A., 1834-1890”. The Victorian Web. 2021. https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/boehm/index.html