The Hydropaths: First Treatment (plate 1)
Medium
Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 24 × 18.8 cm (9 1/2 × 7 7/16 in.); Sheet: 35.1 × 23.5 cm (13 7/8 × 9 5/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51180
Art Historical Context
**The Hydropaths: First Treatment ( 1)**, created by French artist Charles Émile Jacque in 1843, a moment from the quirky world of 19th-century alternative medicine. Jacque, a prominent figure in the Realist movement and associate of the Barbizon school, was renowned for his lively depictions of rural life,, and animals through prints and paintings. This lithograph, in black ink on ivory wove paper belongs to his satirical series *Les Hydropathes*, poking fun at the hydropathy craze—a water-based therapy popularized in Europe as a "natural" cure-all for ailments, often viewed with skepticism b...