What is a Starving Artist?
A starving artist is a painter, poet, actor, musician, or other artist who lives in poverty. Life may be a financial struggle for the undiscovered artist who often cannot earn enough to make a living from art. A starving artist as the romantic, sometimes tragic figure portrayed in literature and theater is based on the bohemian counterculture that began in nineteenth century Paris. The French starving artists, or bohemians as they were known, were poorly housed and fed, yet were passionate about their artistic life as their raison d’etre, or reason for being. The use of the term “bohemian” to describe a starving artist was inspired by Bohemian people from the part of the Czech Republic known as Bohemia, but it did not refer to all aspects of the actual Bohemian lifestyle. The French and other nationalities tended to view the actual Bohemians and Gypsies as con-artists and circus folk rather than actual artists. The French used the expression “bohemian” to describe a starving artist rel
