History Main / StarvingArtist

* Invoked by the father of children's book illustrator Creator/EzraJackKeats. Jack's father worked at a restaurant and, while supportive of his son's love of art, was skeptical about him trying to making a living from that. He even went as far as to give young Jack tubes of paint, claiming that starving artists traded those to him in exchange for food.

* Invoked by the father of children's book illustrator Creator/EzraJackKeats. Ezra's father worked at a restaurant and, while supportive of his son's love of art, was skeptical about him trying to making a living from that. He even went as far as to give young Ezra tubes of paint, claiming that starving artists traded those to him in exchange for food.

** Speaking of Madarame, he puts up a front of being one, wearing drab traditional Japanese clothing and living in a run-down atelier... but it's all an act. His Shadow later boasts that he has all the luxuries he wants under a mistress's name. He did legitimately used to be one, which is why he's so desperate to do whatever it takes to keep himself from going back to being in poverty.

* Yusuke Kitagawa from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' is an artist who's literally starving, not because of any lack of skill or interest in his art, but because his mentor/adoptive father Madarame steals all the credit and profit from his work and leaves him overworked and poor. Even after Madarame is taken down by the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke [[RunningGag is still seen constantly eating in the background and gets excited at the mention of food.]] It doesn't help that he's also something of a MoneyDumb CloudCuckoolander and spends most of his money on art supplies and art-related impulse purchases (he once buys a pair of live lobsters- not to eat, but to ''paint''). He also, as a result of the abuse he suffered from Madarame, has severe issues with the idea of actually making a living through selling his art. A major part of his Confidant route is helping him come to accept that doing so does not make him some sort of monster or sell out.
** Speaking of Madarame, he puts up a front of being one, wearing drab traditional Japanese clothing and living in a run-down atelier... but it's all an act. His Shadow later boasts that he has all the luxuries he wants under a mistress's name.e

* Yusuke Kitagawa from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' is an artist who's literally starving, not because of any lack of skill or interest in his art, but because his mentor/adoptive father Madarame steals all the credit and profit from his work and leaves him overworked and poor. Even after Madarame is taken down by the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke [[RunningGag is still seen constantly eating in the background and gets excited at the mention of food.]] It doesn't help that he's also something of a MoneyDumb CloudCuckolander and spends most of his money on art supplies and art-related impulse purchases (he once buys a pair of live lobsters- not to eat, but to ''paint''). He also, as a result of the abuse he suffered from Madarame, has severe issues with the idea of actually making a living through selling his art. A major part of his Confidant route is helping him come to accept that doing so does not make him some sort of monster or sell out.

* Yusuke Kitagawa from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' is an artist who's literally starving, not because of any lack of skill or interest in his art, but because his mentor/adoptive father Madarame steals all the credit and profit from his work and leaves him overworked and poor. Even after Madarame is taken down by the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke [[RunningGag is still seen constantly eating in the background and gets excited at the mention of food.]] Conversations between him and the other Phantom Thieves reveal that he spends all his money on art supplies, often in unusual ways (he at one point spends a large amount of money on two lobsters; not to eat them, but to ''paint'' them). He also, as a result of the abuse he suffered from Madarame, has severe issues with the idea of actually making a living through selling his art. A major part of his Confidant route is helping him come to accept that doing so does not make him some sort of monster or sell out.

* In ''Literature/{{Gate}}'', Risa is a doujinshi artist, but she can barely afford to pay her electric and heating bills and often has nothing to eat but soy milk and cereal.
* Satoru Fujinuma is one in ''Manga/{{Erased}}''. He's had one hit manga but has mostly been in a slump, with his editor telling him that his stories don't seem to connect for some reason. He works part-time as a pizza delivery driver to help make ends meet in the meantime.
* Subaru in ''Manga/MyRoommateIsACat'' is this because he's TheShutIn who gets so fixated on trying to meet his deadlines as a writer that he forgets to eat (or sleep). SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs and he ends up passing out due to lack of food the first time we see this. He winds up reflexively eating a bowl of Haru's catfood after she becomes so worried about him that she pushes it over to him after he collapses. All his friends and neighbors comment on how underweight he looks, too. As the series progresses, he becomes better at taking care of himself.

* UndergroundComics artist Creator/DoriSeda.
* Kuno Klecksel from Creator/WilhelmBusch's stories, sometimes
* The Swedish edition of ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'' ran a comic in the early '80s set in Konstfack, the University Of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. One of the classes shown was teaching the students this trope, such as surviving an entire week on a glass of ketchup and painting your semester final project, a mouth-watering oil painting of a three-course dinner made out of food-scented wax after a month of starvation. Needless to say, the students taking that class are somewhat worse for wear.
* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': When Tim needed to hire someone to play the part of his non-existent uncle indefinitely he looked for actors who were good at their craft, looked enough like family to pass as such, and were so chronically out of work and broke that they'd be willing to take the bizarre job. He didn't have any trouble finding one.
* Another Swedish example is the satirical comic ''ComicBook/ArneAnka'', which is partially biographical and based on the artist's life as a Starving Artist in the early '80s, though unlike him, the main character Arne is a poet and writer rather than an illustrator. Arne's best friend Krille is a bit more successful, being a semi-successful director, but still often had money issues.

* Tony Hancock's character in ''Film/TheRebel'' has a hard time getting by in Paris until a fellow artist's work is mistaken for his, at which point he becomes the toast of the town.

* ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'' has Joe Gillis as a starving Hollywood screenwriter.

* The Bohemians in ''Film/MoulinRouge'' -- all of whom are so absinthe-addled and otherwise quirky that it's not hard to see how they can't keep steady employment even in world Montmarte.
%%* The protagonist in ''Film/ThePianist''.
* The eponymous protagonist of ''Film/InsideLlewynDavis'' lives a hand-to-mouth, semi-vagrant existence crashing on the couches of acquaintances and relatives, at least those that he has not completely antagonized yet.

* Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne are doing this in 1937's ''Film/TheLifeOfEmileZola'', to the point that the opening scene looks like a ShoutOut to ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.
* At the start of ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', Jerry and Joe are poor musicians in Chicago who have to sell their overcoats (in '''February''') to make ends meet after Joe makes a bad bet.

* ''Film/GauguinVoyageToTahiti'': French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin decides to leave France for Tahiti, where he thinks he will be able to paint without having to worry to make ends meet.
* ''Film/{{Airheads}}'': The Lone Rangers start out this way. Rex works in a toy store, Pip works as a pool boy, and Chazz is unemployed, living off his girlfriend, who works as a secretary.
* ''Film/TheElectricalLifeOfLouisWain'': Due to a string of bad financial decisions, including not copyrighting his art, illustrator Louis Wain descends further into poverty as he gets older. He is only kept from passing away in a dinky mental hospital by pure chance.

** This was [[DoingItForTheArt chiefly a personal decision]], though, as he largely lived on the support from his brother Theo, a quite successful art dealer, and didn't want either to inconvenience his brother too much, nor [[TrueArt compromise his artistic integrity]] for [[MoneyDearBoy more financially rewarding styles and themes]]. Had he agreed to make his art [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible more accessible to the public of the time]], he wouldn't have this much of financial problem.

* In one of Creator/MarkTwain's short stories, there are two starving artists who decide to con their way into getting money. They make a bunch of art and manufacture a story about how the artist who painted these things is fatally ill. [[DeadArtistsAreBetter Naturally, the artist in question eventually "dies", and his paintings become valuable overnight.]](This really happened. Look up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern_Malley Ernest Malley]].)

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': When Tim needed to hire someone to play the part of his non-existent uncle indefinitely he looked for actors who were good at their craft, looked enough like family to pass as such, and were so chronically out of work and broke that they'd be willing to take the bizarre job. He didn't have any trouble finding one.

* Creator/SylvesterStallone was so broke when he wrote ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' that he had to sell his dog.

* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', the MookMaker Vincent Van Gore takes this trope to both his death and his {{Boss Subtitle|s}}.

* A HarsherInHindsight insight from Creator/SomersetMaugham for those who overly romanticize this experience: ''You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer."

* In one of Creator/MarkTwain's short stories, there are two starving artists who decide to con their way into getting money. They make a bunch of art and manufacture a story about how the artist who painted these things is fatally ill. [[DeadArtistsAreBetter Naturally, the artist in question eventually "dies", and his paintings become valuable overnight.]]
** This really happened. Look up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern_Malley Ernest Malley]].

* Jack in the book ''Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime''. All three of the protagonists are-- one is a novelist, one is a man looking to have a radio show, and the other is a singer, and they are barely scraping together money to survive.

* Poor Stanislav from VideoGame/KrakenAcademy just wants people to see his commission sheet and share his art on Kraken-Net. He's by far one of the hardest working students and actually focuses on his schoolwork, and yet seems to be absolutely broke. He's even admitted that, in his desperation, he's accepted commissions of a [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog certain blue hedgehog]] doing "[[Rule34 things you wouldn't believe]]".
* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', the MookMaker Vincent Van Gore takes this trope to both his death and his BossSubtitle.

* In ''Videogame/{{Arknights}}'', Dusk is one of these, being an incredibly talented painter who has no home or job. In fact, the entire "What Is Real?" story event where she is introduced involves her sister Nian bringing her to Rhodes Island so she'll have a place to live and work. This is easier said than done, as Dusk is not only a massive introvert who has little interest in the outside world, but she is also [[spoiler: [[PiecesOfGod part of a shattered god]], and her paintings [[RealityWarper can create objects, life, and entire worlds.]] It turns out one doesn't need a home or job when one can paint up whatever they need on a whim.]]

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* Creator/GeneKelly as Jerry Mulligan in ''Film/AnAmericanInParis''.
* ''Film/WithnailAndI'' has the protagonists as such.

* The protagonist in ''Film/ThePianist''.

* Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne are doing this in 1937's ''The Life of Émile Zola'', to the point that the opening scene looks like a ShoutOut to ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{Discworld/Thud}}'', where one MadArtist was reduced to begging in the street... for paints to finish his masterwork.