Marianna Franken

Marianna Virginia Franken (2 February 1928 – 15 February 2025), also known as M.V. Franken, was a Dutch ceramicist and potter. She actively worked from 1955 until 2017 making ceramics.

Life and career Marianna Virginia Franken was born on 2 February 1928, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Between 1946 and 1955, she studied radiology at the University of California, Berkeley. While she was living in California, her brother Gerard who had also lived in California, served in the United States Army during World War II.

When she returned to Amsterdam after 1955, Franken focused her studies on ceramics with Emmy van Deventer. Franken had a ceramics studio in Amsterdam from 1958 to 1960, and afterwards she moved her studio to Hoogland in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Franken's ceramics are in museum collections, including at Museum Arnhem, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and Centraal Museum.