A Caned and Confined Debutante? or What Can Be Got From a Picture?

Where, exactly does today's illustration come in to the scheme of things?  You may well ask – and I have no hard and fast answers; thank the Lord!  For the imagination is always far richer than reality, even if that 'reality' only exists in someone else’s imaginings.  What I mean is just look at it!  I'm well aware I have featured this print before, but let us devote a little time to its analysis – then with hope you'll see what it is about it that spawned all that has just gone before (above).

To start with:  What exactly is going on here - I mean beyond the obvious application of corporal punishment? What is here, what clues have we?  

There is a stern-looking woman dressed in what appears to be some sort of authoritarian-looking uniform holding what might be a wooden paddle (or a vanity mirror?).  

There is a half-naked, kneeling, bound female figure who is dressed in a very short shift and stockings, her bottom bared for punishment.  The latter’s hands and forearms are bound behind her back, presumably so that she cannot protect her bottom, and yet interestingly her ankles have been left free, suggesting an element of discipline by which she is obliged to keep position of her own accord.  

Finally, there is a woman dressed in high-fashion as if for a genteel soirée and looking about as out of place as it gets, a rope of pearls around her slender neck.  And yet she too is holding some form of correctional implement, making her very much part of the scenario despite her incongruous appearance given the background.

Then there is the dinner plate or perhaps shallow bowel.  That dinner plate - and the part it plays (or has played) in the proceedings - has always intrigued me; indeed for me it is what the picture is all about.  The artist has included it for some good reason; it clearly plays some important part in the story otherwise why put it in?  There is no need for anything to be included at that point in the illustration if the intention was to merely depict a young woman about to be -or having been – punished in the usual sense.  Yet the platter appears to be empty and has been drawn off-centre, as if having played its part it has been withdrawn from centre stage, yet has been left in view as a reminder of its importance.  

The first question I guess comes down to whether what is being depicted is something occurring within a domestic or institutional environment.  If the latter then the question comes down to: Is the establishment in question penal, scholastic (or even a medical or psychiatric) in nature.  All of this has a bearing on what might be going on, the identity of the participants and the role of that enigmatic dinner plate - and even possibly on whatever it may have held, or perhaps still holds indiscernible to the viewer.  

The latter - that there is something resting on the plate that the artist has chosen to leave invisible to the observer for some reason - is still a possibility, despite the object’s off-centre positioning.  What makes me think that maybe that is the case is the manner in which the girl's head is bowed while simultaneously twisting towards the lunch plate or whatever it is.  If she is being made to take something from the plate’s surface with her mouth, her hands and arms having been safely removed from the equation, then the plate having been placed off-centre in the manner depicted might make sense.  The plate having been placed in that position then obliges the girl to both twist and bend forward in order to reach its surface, leaving her bottom cheeks even more exposed to the fronds of the small whip the well-dressed woman is holding while of course simultaneously making the movement far harder for the girl to carry out.

The rough-hewn platform on which the subject is kneeling would not seem consistent with a domestic environment and no detail of the surroundings can be made out, although I for one find myself forming the impression that it is somewhere quite cramped and dark.  I find it difficult from the shadowing to identify the direction the scene is illuminated from.  The plate seems to possess a narrow ring of shadow running all the way round beneath its perimeter and the girl’s back seems nearly devoid of shadow other than beneath her forearms  Both these factors suggest to me that the scene is illuminated from directly above the girl's back, the light presumably coming from a lamp of some kind, with little or no natural light coming in obliquely, which in turn argues against there being a window present.   

None of these aspects totally rules out the drama being played out on the domestic stage, as it is quite possible that this scene is taking place in some segregated, perhaps especially arranged, area of a large house, but I think there is an argument suggesting that the circumstantial evidence leans towards some kind of institution.  And of course, if it is some form of institution, even if a penal institution, then if small and privately owned it might still exist within some enclosed area of a large private house or state.  You have to remember that this was an era devoid of any welfare system and when a large land owner might well take it upon his or herself, if charitably minded, to set up a workhouse or industrial school funded from his or her own pocket - for the finest philanthropic and charitable reasons, of course.

The uniformed woman could be taken for a governess employed in a large household, just about.  And yet her uniform with its black necktie and white-collar, blouse and long skirt looks a little too severe to my mind and more reminiscent of the uniform of a prison or reform school wardress of the era.  And again, the girl's arms being fastened behind her back in that manner somehow doesn't gel with me as the sort of approach a professional governess might have taken.  One would imagine any professional governess worth her salt would have used her strength of character, domineering personality and the application of discipline to make a girl keep her hands away from her bottom rather than fall back on physical restraint.  

Once again I think this argues for some kind of institutional scenario.  The only problem is the glaringly awkward presence of the well-dressed, well appointed woman.  If the scene were taking place someplace tucked away in a large house somewhere, then her presence might be more explainable.  I suppose that within an institution of some kind she might be one of the visiting Board of Governors or the chief warden or - if some form of reform school of reformatory - then perhaps the headmistress.  But even then, would she really be dressed like that, as if about to attend some high-class social ‘do’?  And would she be sullying herself by taking part in a punishment session herself.  The only explanation I can come up with is that she has some personal interest in the character about to go under her a whip - otherwise why not merely supervise, if supervision is the reason for her being there, while the wardress administers the punishment in the normal manner.  

I like the idea of the well-dressed woman being someone visiting - perhaps breaking her journey on her way to some big dinner or other social gathering - but I feel there is some more personal aspect to it than one of the governors giving the establishment the once over.  But then who she, why is she there, why is she so smartly dressed?  As in the case of the plate, there must be a good reason she has been drawn in that manner.  And of course we still have to explain the plate itself and how that might fit in.  

But imagine if, whoever this socialite woman actually is, the social gathering, or better still, dinner - given the presence of the plate - she is off to next is one the miscreant herself might have otherwise have been attending.  Perhaps it is a formal dinner appended to one of the more major debutant ‘coming-out’ balls of the season the well-dressed socialite is about to attend, a night that should have been one of the most important of the young lady's life, had she not stepped in some eighteen months or so previously to put an end to all that.  She greased some palms with silver then, and she has crossed others with silver since and now, as she does whenever she comes to visit.  But she begrudges that expense much less than drawing the cost of the debutant season with all its attendant ball gowns, hairstyling sessions and makeup artists from the girl's trust fund - she has other uses for that.   

Tonight’s is billed as one of the top five debutante balls of the world, and the second of the season.  But she won't be mean, she will share the experience.  She will be taking her notebook with her, sketching down notes of the latest styles and fashions; who was wearing what, who was wearing her hair in which style, which girl made the best entrance and who was dating who, that sort of thing.  She'll bring it with her next time she visits, read from it, regale the girl with so many vivid descriptions she will feel as if were there.  It is a shame that she can't be, but they wouldn't be able to be much with that hair anyway - too short for the latest piled-up styles… and so matted.  But then they have the girls work so long and hard in that work room - and you can expect them to leave hair brushes lying around in a place like this in any case, when they could be used to cause harm.  She’ll have a word with them before she goes; get them to cut it a little shorter for her.

Yes, she likes to keep her ward up to date on all the latest social chatter - it seems only fair, after all it is her trust fund that makes much of it possible these days, although much goes on paying for her keep too. But that is only as it should be; the fund was set aside for her education after all and they seem to be doing a good job; etiquette, deportment, manners, voice training, needlework, they covered it all here - and so much cheaper than one of those expensive Parisian academies.  In fact under such circumstances - if she hadn't written her ward’s committal record herself, in her own fair hand - it would be free, paid for by one of the church charities she was chairwoman for.  Yes it was sweetly ironic; Home for the Delinquent, the Destitute and Young Women in Moral Peril, it said on the signboard outside the gates.  Destitute – and yet her ward was not even the wealthiest in there; there were three such like her in total.

She'll bring her ward a piece of cake from tonight’s event too, with icing on, just like she did this visit from the first ball and dinner of the season.  Perhaps the girl will eat it without all this fuss the next time.  Why, she thought she'd be grateful for it after all those meals of oats steeped in fish-head stew.  Such a nice hunk of cake - expensive cake too, fit for a debutante’s ball, which is where it came from - and yet such distaste written all over that face, that pretty ski jump nose of hers wrinkling in distaste.  Such ungratefulness, it had to be punished, and she did eat it all up in the end anyway, every crumb - so why all the trials and tribulations among why?  Must have been something to do with what it had been marinated in after she had got it home…  If she didn't like that, perhaps next time she'd add a little something to the icing - perhaps re-do it altogether...