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Victoria looks at the earliest bohemian artists in post-revolutionary Paris and explores how its subculture took root in Britain through the eccentricities of the Pre-Raphaelites.

In the opening episode, Victoria traces the story of the first bohemians. She begins in post-revolutionary Paris, where poverty-stricken, garret-dwelling artists and writers gained a reputation for loose living, colourful clothing and wild, naked parties. They revelled in the absurd - for example, one legendarily took his pet lobster for walks in the park. Here the archetype of the bohemian was born, immortalised later in Puccini's opera La Boheme. But were they trailblazing creatives or irritating posers? And is living outrageously a necessary step towards producing great art?

Victoria goes on to explore how bohemian subculture took root in Britain through the groundbreaking art, eccentricities and bad-boy behaviour of the Pre-Raphaelites. Dante Gabriel Rossetti cultivated his image as an oddball, keeping a menagerie including a much-loved wombat. He caused a scandal when he became obsessively entangled with Janey Morris, wife of his friend, the designer William Morris. Victoria learns how bohemianism evolved into the dandy pose of aesthetes such as playwright Oscar Wilde and artist Aubrey Beardsley, whose explicit drawings intrigued and shocked the public in equal measure.

And she recounts how, most surprisingly, bohemian living found one of its greatest advocates in children's author Arthur Ransome who, long before Swallows and Amazons, wrote a whimsical traveller's guide to bohemian London.

Victoria's historical journey is given added resonance through her probing, highly entertaining encounters with a range of illuminating modern bohemians, including Stephen Fry, artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, pop star-turned-vicar and broadcaster Richard Coles, writer Will Self and drag artist Jonny Woo.

1 hour

Last on

Mon 9 Apr 2018 00:30

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Music Played

  • Django Reinhardt & St茅phane Grappelli

    Nuages

  • Erik Satie

    Avec Etonnement

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell
Production Company Wingspan Productions
Executive Producer Archie Baron
Executive Producer Deborah Lee
Producer Helena Braun
Director Helena Braun
Participant Virgin Xtravaganzah
Participant Maggi Hambling
Participant AA Gill
Participant Jonny Woo
Participant Will Self
Participant Lewis Henderson
Participant Grayson Perry
Participant Virginia Nicholson
Participant Stephen Fry
Participant Molly Parkin
Participant Tom Hodgkinson
Participant Richard Coles
Participant Pascal Monfort
Participant Stephen Calloway
Participant Alison Smith

Broadcasts

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