The Bohemians

With my increasing interests in the artistic communities of Europe (especially Britain) from late 19th century to early 20th century, I recently finished reading a book, "Among the Bohemians" written by Virginia Nicholson, a niece of Virginia Woolf. As suggested by the subtitle, "Experiments in Living," the book describes how Bohemians were truly the cultural revolutionaries in living, not just in pursuit of art, but by resisting every aspect of life and moral.

According to Nicholson, the first rule of the Bohemians was to discard all conventions...and this really meant ALL conventions, for the sake of art; money, status, jobs, properties, food, and even, education and hygiene. Nicholson's chapter on hygiene was especially interesting; prior to the invention of flushing toilets, reliable boilers, and washing machines, keeping oneself clean required enormous efforts, and those with little money hired a maid or two to keep themselves clean. Not having a maid meant giving up the middle class convention, morally important for the cultural revolutionaries, but this could lead to no one volunteering to sit next to you during summer. The exotic furnishings could also mean convention, with chaise longue functioning as a sofa and a bed in a studio and resident model scratching their legs for bites from bedbugs.

Bohemianism really meant simplifying life, and so the short hair and loose gypsy attires of Bohemian women meant keeping life less fussy. Women's liberation and fascination for exotic cultures also played pivotal roles in the way Bohemians dressed and lived, but there is no denying that they also helped unloading the weights of daily domestic chores (and Bohemian men seem to be less inclined in fair-sharing of chores.)

Victorian and Edwardian eras were the time of obsessive morals and decencies, with hidden codes for everything...how many times one needs to change a day, which of their children will be educated by governess and which will be sent to proper schools, how many plates need to be served during dinner with which drink to be served and when...and so on. Resisting the codes and living out of convention really meant revolution and experiment.

Until I read this book, I thought of Bohemians as addicts' culture, with lots of boozes and drugs, and while some of the artists were known drunks, I was surprised to find that this was not the culture of addicts, but those who enjoyed simple pleasures of life. They enjoyed cooking, experimented in Italian and French cuisines (and garlic!) and drank cheap but delicious wines with friends. Some even led their lives closer to nature than the city life, as represented by Charleston, the house of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

The Bohemians were really the first of the cultural revolutionaries in the modern era. The cultural "modern" era started when the vast number of society became "middle class", which only happened in the 1800's. Majority of the Bohemians were of this class, and they were the first to question their own restrictions imposed on living.

I now wonder if Bohemian culture was really a "sub-culture," as so-called mainstream cultures and conventions of Victorians and Edwardians look more strange and inhumane to me. Perhaps the fact that my questioning this shows how far we came along, with the change in cultural convention altered by cultural revolutionaries.

Many of the Bohemians did not make it as the world-renowned artists...but collectively, they were the force in change, and we cannot deny that we are the beneficiaries of their legacy. Bohemian's "Experiments in Living" is the testament of how subculture led the way in changing the mainstream culture and lives.

"Among the Bohemians" by Virginia Nicholson