Hydropathe Caricature

Abstract

As a young ‘bohemian’ collective, the Cercle des Hydropathes was characterised by frivolous humour indicative of the liberal social changes in France’s early Third Republic. This chapter considers how the Cercle des Hydropathes’ republican community was personified in humorous portraits on the cover of its journal L’Hydropathe. It argues that in satirising the club’s collective image, Georges Lorin’s caricatures coherently portrayed the artists through an image that promoted Republican liberty as a stable ideal. Instead of rallying support for liberal social progression, their club created an environment allowing Parisian intellectuals to engage with the way of life that Republican liberties made possible.