'In our oh-so-civilised society it is necessary for me to lead the life of a savage; I must free myself even from governments... To do that, I have just set out on the great, independent, vagabond life of the bohemian.'
Gustave Courbet

The Romantic emphasis on the independence of the artist gave birth to one of the most familiar of all 19th-century artistic types, the bohemian - youthful, adventurous and poor, living in defiance of society's conventions.

The term 'bohemian' - French for gypsy - was first used to describe artists by the playwright Félix Pyat in 1834. A bohemian artistic community became firmly established in Paris in the 1830s and 40s, partly because of the great number of artists living there and the decline of state patronage. It was famously celebrated in Henri Murger's 'Scenes of Bohemian Life', a collection of stories about a small band of writers, painters and musicians, which formed the inspiration for Puccini's opera 'La Bohème'.

Largely through the rebellious figure of Courbet, bohemianism became associated with political radicalism. The bohemian regarded himself as an enemy of the bourgeois, and art and politics were the chief topics of debate at the cafés where artists met.

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