Friday 4 July 2014

Classic art: Without a trace

As you can probably tell from this blog, I love vintage spanking erotica. Good art makes a connection that photography very rarely can.
So, I was fascinated when I read last night about how photography and art come together in the work of the 19th Century master of spanking art Louis Malteste. It looks as though for some of his best-known images Malteste was cheating - tracing photographs rather than working from life or pure imagination.
'Cheating' is probably too loaded a word to use and the technique certainly produced some beautiful and memorable images, especially his earlier efforts. I wonder if he used a photograph tracing for all of his illustration?
Looking through Malteste stuff on the web today I came across this one, which I don't think I've seen before. I find it fascinating; what did she do to earn herself a punishment? Are they in a compartment, and are we as viewers peeping in on a private moment? Or is it an open carriage and the public nature of the process part of her humiliation?











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