Edward Marshall Boehm

Edward Marshall Boehm (August 21, 1913 – January 29, 1969) was an American figurative expressionist sculptor, known for his porcelain figures of birds and other wildlife. Boehm explained his choice of porcelain as the medium for his art as follows:"Porcelain is a permanent creation. If properly processed and fired, its colors will never change; and it can be subjected to extreme temperatures without damage. It is a medium in which one can portray the everlasting beauty of form and color of wildlife and nature." He and his wife founded an eponymous company, E.M. Boehm Studios, in 1950.

Biography Edward Marshall Boehm was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1913. His surname is pronounced "Beam".

His parents separated before his birth. His mother, Elsie, died when he was seven years old. (He did not meet his father until he was in his twenties.) Friends enrolled him in an all-boys school for orphans and the poor, the McDonogh School, where he remained until he was 16 years old, when he left to work as a farmhand. He studied animal husbandry at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1944, he married Helen Franzolin (12/26/1920–11/15/2010). They moved to Trenton, New Jersey, where they founded their business in 1950. The following year, the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ordered two statues for the museum's collection. The marriage was long and happy but childless. The couple remained together until Edward's death in 1969, aged 55.

Death Edward Marshall Boehm died from a heart attack on January 29, 1969, aged 55.

Tributes ”The image and likeness of God's world is seen at once in the work of Edward Marshall Boehm. It is not an elusive and esoteric expression like so much of contemporary art. Clarity is its first quality. Its grandeur is in its perfection. It is a disciplined art, mastering the demands of the ancient and distinguished craft of porcelain making” Frank J. Cosentino, president of Edward Marshall Boehm, Inc., explained the importance of Boehm's hard-paste porcelain sculpture: "Prior to Edward Marshall Boehm's venture in 1950s, few, if any, American firms had ever made hard-paste porcelain sculpture that successfully compared with the fine centuries-old production of Europe and Asia."

Selected Collections Today Boehm porcelain is in the permanent collections of one hundred thirty-four institutions globally including: White House, Washington, D.C. Buckingham Palace, London, England Elysѐe Palace, Paris, France The Vatican Museum, Vatican City Hermitage, Moscow, Russia Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Museum of Fine Arts, Houston John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee The Louisiana State Museum The Smithsonian Institution Bellingrath Gardens and Home, Mobile, Alabama University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio The American Camellia Society at Massee Lane Gardens in Fort Valley, Georgia Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda of Reston, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.) Terrebonne Historical & Cultural Society (THACS) Wichita Art Museum , Wichita, Kansas, U.S. Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, TN, US McDonogh School Wilson | Young Archives & Special Collections , Owings Mills, MD, US