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| A plate from Allatini's Sur Talons Rouges, illustrated by Gerda Wegener. |
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| Original drawings by Wegener in our upcoming auction include this pen and ink of a happily inebriated women in revealingly loose dress tipping the last drops of elixir from her glass. |
While Gerda became well known--and faced criticism at times--for her erotic illustrations filled with lesbian themes, her husband Einar, who came out as a transsexual named Lili Elbe, underwent the first known sex reassignment surgery in history in 1930.
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| A watercolor, pen and ink of a female harlequin lounging on a divan while maidens drop roses upon her employs many of the artist's recurring motifs. |
Gerda often left her signature off of her highly erotic drawings and instead included a domino mask symbol in the lower right or left of each image.
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| The artist's trademark mask appears at the bottom of this image from Vérineau's Douze Sonnets, which also features--what else?--a swan. |
The sale also features curiosa by other artists and authors.