Henry Murger described within his novel La Bohème for the first time in history the life and struggle of poor artists within bourgeois society. This was the beginning of the romantic myth of the independent, anarchistic spirit of creative artists. In that context photography played an important role, used by the artists for self-exposure and to document their working conditions and leisure. The bohemian legend persists in literature, on stage and film, as well as in the attitudes of numerous artists of our own time.

This book assembles daguerreotypes and photographs of painters, sculptures, writers and actors, portraits and group pictures, pictures of studio interiors and parties from the late Biedermeier over the Belle Epoche up to the 1920th.
Besides the pictures from famous photographers as Nadar, Alois Löcherer, Wilkie Wynfield, J.M. Cameron, August Sander and Lux Feininger, the book contains numerous unusual pictures of unknown “masters”.