ABSTRACT
Bohemia, perceived as a state of mind rather than a given place, has always elicited scandal. In the Victorian era, bohemian was primarily a masculine realm associated with avant-garde artists, which in effect precluded women. However, the concept of a free-spirited female rebel gained currency thanks to Michael William Balfe and Alfred Bunn’s romantic opera The Bohemian Girl (1843), which appropriated Romany culture. Firmly located in an artistic counterculture, the Bohemian Girl assumed a variety of tropes. She could be an artist’s model and muse or a struggling artist. Taking to the stage as an actor, singer, or dancer was an obvious outlet for her creative impulses. However, all forms of performing or creating a spectacle exposed women to gossip and scandal. Inevitably, living freely necessitated throwing off one’s corset and shunning commercially driven high fashion. Donning artistic or aesthetic dress, the Bohemian Girl took to the streets, apparently a painting that had come to life. By creating a public spectacle, at a private view or first night, women courted celebrity. The “red carpet” event was born, a space where a woman could forge a reputation simply through her visibility. Challenging conventions, the dress and conduct of the Bohemian Girl were deemed scandalous. Over the course of time the Bohemian Girl evolved. While she can be read as a forerunner or sister of the militant New Woman, associated with emancipation and political activism, the Bohemian Girl’s objective was to live her life with creative freedom.
