LONDON — From Lord Byron to Sid Vicious, artists have lived fast, sparked outrage and died young. A new exhibition that opened Wednesday at Britain's National Gallery traces the image of the artist as rebellious loner from its romantic roots through works by Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Edgar Degas and others.

Co-curator Alexander Sturgis says "Rebels and Martyrs" explores "the romantic myth of the genius suffering artist" that arose in the early 19th century and is still going strong. For example: The pale skin, disheveled hair and staring eyes in self-portraits by Gustave Courbet and Alexandre Abel de Pujol are echoed in elegantly wasted rock stars from Keith Richards to Pete Doherty.

This art celebrates the bad boy — or wild woman. The show demonstrates that this was not always the case. The exhibition opens with solid, sober 18th-century self-portraits by artists who desperately wanted to be part of the establishment and set up self-regulating bodies such as Britain's Royal Academy to protect their status.

By century's end, more romantic notions were taking hold. Artists often depicted themselves as lone geniuses, ostracized by society but fired by an inner flame. In one of the show's most striking self-portraits, French painter Courbet stares at the viewer, wide-eyed and tousled, looking for all the world like an emotional Johnny Depp.

Sturgis said the works express a belief that "it is the fierce individuality of the artists that is the wellspring of art." This notion was partly a reaction against the 18th century's Enlightenment philosophy, with its emphasis on rationality and science — replaced by "an emphasis on the spiritual, the intuitive, the internal."

Partly, Sturgis said, the cause was economic. The middle class replaced state and church as the main buyers of art. So "artists became much less secure" and "the poor, struggling artist was an economic reality."

The show brings together an eclectic collection of more than 70 works that range from the sublime to the ridiculous. In a satirical painting by Leonardo Alenza, a demented artist prepares to hurl himself off a cliff — even in the 19th century, the self-important artist was a ripe source of humor.

As the bohemian image of the artist took root, even the most successful depicted themselves as outsiders. The gallery's exhibition includes Camille Pissaro's portrait of Paul Cezanne, bearded and dressed in peasant coat and hat. Eugene Delacroix's mammoth "Ovid Among the Scythians" shows "the artist in exile, surrounded by barbarian hordes who don't understand him."

The works span the 19th century and nudge the 20th — there's a 1903 portrait by the young Pablo Picasso of his friend, Angel Fernandez de Soto.

For some artists, the pressure of being an outsider proved unbearable. The exhibition contains two works by Paul Gaughin and van Gogh in which each artist likens his own agonies to those of Jesus Christ. Gaughin's "Agony in the Garden" shows a suffering Christ with the artist's own features. In van Gogh's "Pieta After Delacroix," the pale, dead figure of Christ has the red hair and beard of the painter.

Van Gogh, with his breakdowns and ear-severing, remains for many the epitome of the tortured artist. But not the last. Sturgis said the image of the tormented outsider "is fantastically persistent — and now frustratingly difficult to see behind."

"Rebels and Martyrs" is open until Aug. 28.

Learn more: www.nationalgallery.org.uk