An artist known for his depictions of spanking…

Louis Malteste (1862-1928) was a creative French artist, skilled in various forms of art, including engraving, designing, writing, and creating illustrations. It is the last skill that he is best known for today.

He is especially known for his many illustrations of spanking, a form of punishment that was in most parts of the world much more common in the past than today. As you can see in these four illustrations, the people executing the punishment and the people surrounding them seem to derive a lot of pleasure from this activity.

Malteste created these illustrations with a sense of humor, though they were probably also a social commentary on the practice of spanking during his time.