The Dawn of Bohemianism

The emergence in 1800 of a rebellious group of young artists in the studio of the painter David signaled the first organized and deliberate alienation from society by a group of artists in the modern age. The Barbus, or "bearded ones," self-styled eccentrics sporting outlandish costumes derived from Grecian or Oriental garb, presaged the better-known German Nazarenes and the English Pre-Raphaelites as well as the 20th-century hippies and flower children.

In their effort to separate themselves from the world, the Barbus followed esoteric rituals and proclaimed primitivist ideals in art that reflected their aim of a utopian reorganization of society. This deliberate alienation is seen as the opening example of a long succession of utopian assertions by French artists from the early Romantic period to the present. The stylistic innovations attempted by these artists influenced such later artists as Ingres and played a significant role in the evolution of early 19th-century French painting.

Professor Levitine presents the efforts of the Barbus in the context of the fundamental changes that affected the images of the artist during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The popular images of the artist was often a humiliating stereotype, and the real social and cultural position of the artists conflicted with official and literary recognition. The avant-garde stratagems of the Barbus came as a response to an unendurable false social condition. This volume is an illuminating study of a group practicing social alienation while at the same time attempting to formulate its own aesthetic definition.