The term “starving artist” refers to artists living in poverty, often unable to make a living from their art. The bohemian counterculture, which began in 19th-century Paris, inspired the romanticized image of the starving artist. The first bohemians were Parisian bourgeois, but soon even working-class people began living the bohemian lifestyle. Housing for bohemians was often small, sparsely furnished attic-style rooms on the top floor of apartment buildings. Food was limited, and when money was available, bohemians would treat each other to good meals. Henry Murger’s 1849 play Scenes de la Vie de Boheme was the first work of art to make the public more informed about the bohemian counterculture. Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock musical Rent was inspired by Murger’s play and included modern art counterculture.
A starving artist is a painter, poet, actor, musician, or other artist living in poverty. Life can be a financial struggle for the unknown artist who often cannot earn enough to make a living from art. An artist like the romantic, sometimes tragic figure portrayed in literature and theater is based on the bohemian counterculture that began in 19th-century Paris. Starving French artists, or bohemians as they were known, were poorly housed and fed, but they were as passionate about their artistic life as their raison d’être, or reason for being.
The use of the term “bohemian” was inspired by the Bohemian people of the part of the Czech Republic known as Bohemia, but it did not refer to all aspects of the current Bohemian way of life. The French and other nationalities tended to see the real Bohemians and Gypsies as crooks and circus people rather than actual performers. The French used the expression “bohemian” to describe a hungry artist related only to the poor but free-spirited vision of bohemians and gypsies.
The first bohemians were Parisian bourgeois; young people starting to live alone. They lived the impoverished life of a starving artist, yet most had a home to return to whenever they wished. Soon, even working-class people who were actually poor started living the life of the bohemian.
Housing for a typical bohemian of the 1850s was a small, sparsely furnished attic-style room on the top floor of an apartment building as these units were cheaper in Paris than housing on lower floors. Many stairs, often hundreds, had to be climbed to reach the upper rooms. Sometimes several students shared a suite of rooms and focused on their craft while inspiring each other as well. Food for the starving artist was often limited to small quantities of items such as potatoes, cheese and herring. When a bohemian had some money, it was common to treat other bohemians to a good meal of lobster and wine.
Henry Murger’s 1849 play Scenes de la Vie de Boheme was the first work of art to make the public more informed about the bohemian counterculture. Victor Hugo’s masterpiece Les Miserables which included bohemian students as characters would appear later, in 1862. Murger’s work featured three main types of starving artists: the unknown artists who often died in poverty because they thought discovery would arrived at them without their pursuit of it, the paid workers of the bourgeoisie who lived the bohemian lifestyle for its romantic appeal, and the artists who worked without much money, but with much ambition, who could survive well whether they got rich or remain poor.
Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock musical Rent was inspired by Murger’s play and Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, based on Murger’s play. Larson included modern art counterculture in Rent with topics on drugs, AIDS, and same-sex relationships. Rent is set in the East Village area of New York and is about the lives of starving young idealistic artists, some of whom are HIV positive, who struggle to make a living from their art. The young artists embody the bohemian/bohemian philosophy of living each day one at a time and striving to make their short lives meaningful through the expression of their artistic passions.
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