The Strange Case Of Thomas Poulton, An Erotic Artist In The 1940s (NSFW)

Warning: This article contains nudity and other explicit imagery and may not be suitable for work environments.

We don’t know much about Thomas Leycester Poulton. We know he was born Feb. 3, 1897, in the United Kingdom. He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art, where he trained under surgeon and draughtsman Henry Tonks. He briefly served in the military during World War I and began a career in medical draughtsmanship after.

We also know that between 1921 and 1926, Poulton’s anatomically precise medical drawings appeared in The British Journal of Surgery, his illustrations on the covers of The Radio Times and some Reader’s Digest books. Married to a lute player named Diana, he lived the quiet life of a freelance illustrator, accepting various projects here and there, even holding a brief stint as a cartographer.

But behind closed doors, Poulton had another hobby. Perhaps “passion” is a more fitting word.

Throughout his lifetime, Poulton drew a treasure trove of erotic artwork, made with soft pencil on lightweight, tissue-like paper. Having mastered the laws of human anatomy, Poulton rendered technically skilled images of men and women getting hot and heavy in a variety of imaginative scenarios ― and positions.

Poulton’s drawings run the gamut of sexual fantasies, including drawings of straight sex, gay sex, masturbation, fellatio, cunnilingus and orgies. There’s sex on a boat, on a hammock, on a swing, in the backseat of a car. There’s sex in sailor hats, formalwear, lingerie and nothing at all. There’s adultery interrupted by an angry spouse, intimate relations between artist and model, couples fooling around while looking at porn.

Given the accuracy of the drawings, it’s difficult to say whether or not Poulton created them from experience or the depths of his imagination. (Based on the time period in which he was working, it’s unlikely that he rendered them from photographs.)

As Jamie Maclean explains in his introduction to Taschen’s Tom Poulton: The Secret Art of an English Gentleman: “It is entirely possible that the more exotic orgies he drew actually took place. It’s not known whether he possessed an extremely libertine circle of friends who included him in their orgies as ‘artist in residence,’ whether these libertines merely fed an already brilliant sexual imagination with the details relevant to the commission or whether he knew some sensationally louche and daring models.”

Regardless, Poulton clearly injects a heavy dose of imagination into his drawn creations, including certain flourishes that elevate his anatomically correct drawings with a hint of cartoonish exaggeration and animation. It is this very artistic touch, Maclean argues, that distinguishes Poulton’s work ― deemed erotic art ― from pornography.

Porn in the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s was about realistically depicting sex of different kinds, plain and simple. Erotic art, however, was more of a game between artist and subject matter, a playful challenge not just to capture an image but to depict a mood. Unfortunately, when Poulton was making his work, neither porn nor erotica were welcome in the mainstream cultural conversation. So Poulton kept his drawings secret. They were not exhibited for the first time in public until the 1990s.

One of the greatest components of Poulton’s drawings is the fact that they’re sketches. Like most sketches, they seem impetuous, imperfect and unfinished. Heavily shaded genitalia give way to light gestures and lines, capturing the rapid pace and unbridled energy with which Poulton put pencil to paper.

The artist passed away in 1963, at 66 years old, just before the first waves of sexual revolution and enlightenment changed the perspectives of people around the world, opening up their minds and perhaps their legs, too. Poulton’s stunning erotic art collection provides a juicy glimpse into a time and place when sexual expression of almost any kind was muffled and prohibited.

And yet, as Poulton’s work proves, imagination can transcend the most rigid of rules.

Tom Poulton: The Secret Art of an English Gentleman is available from Taschen Books.