As an age, we harbour secretly prideful feelings about our relationship with sex. We believe ourselves to be the most open, the most creative, the least censuring and prudish, and the most tolerant society in history. Deep down, we also smile at the thought that we are the most depraved, perverse and immoral. We are sure our ideas are the most progressive and weird, and our art the best and most shocking representation of this weirdness!

The following is a series of drawings by French artist Eugène le Poitevin (1806-1870) made in the mid-19th century.

The motif in these pictures is the Devil. Here, for example, this devil is having his way with a stockinged lady in the sky. I wonder how difficult it would be to have sex and flap one’s wings at the same time. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee?

So, we have a fire, over which a happy-looking devil is fucking a woman clinging to him while, from behind, another devil fingers the woman’s ass. A second woman blows (no, not that kind of blowing!) on the fire with some kind of instrument. She’s clothed and focused on her task.

This particularly ugly-looking devil is ejaculating a stream of women and couples and other wonders that, once they hit the ground, are pulled away by smaller devils for, we can only guess, unholy and dirty deeds don’t dirt cheap.

These six ladies have stumbled upon quite the find: a tall pole on top of which dangle (and grow?) various cocks. Hungrily, they climb the pole, grab a cock, knock down a few more, and God knows what happens then!

This is a true feat of sexual engineering. A lady, stockings pulled down to her knees, lies on her back, legs spread, a dildo (or perhaps some kind of living cock-creature) in her pussy. Her head is up and she’s looking at the devils and skeleton things that are pulling back a thick wooden battering ram. Another pushes against her from behind, to make sure she stays in place when the ram…

A simple roll in the grass with a devil. Four legs and a tail.

A humanoid cock relaxes by the fire after a hard day’s work. Nothing like kicking back in your favourite chair and reading the paper.

This devil is on his back, receiving a nice handjob from the miss squatting over him. Unless my eyes deceive me, she is defecating into his open mouth. I suppose he likes it, because his hands are pulling at the mattress like he’s hanging on for dear life. You dirty devil, you!

An already tall devil walks on a pair of stilts and dangles a woman on his tail (curled up under his legs), ready to set her down on his erect cock. He’s quite the horny creature. I mean, just look at his head.

Cock worship in its finest and most organized form: a crowd of women standing about, a few bowing down and possibly praying, and several hugging and pressing against the cock itself. Living or statue? Your guess is as good as mine.

A devil kneels in front of a wooden box and two women eagerly view his enlarged penis through some kind of magnifying lens. Beside them, a she-devil watches and guards a basketful of penises.

There’s nothing quite as romantic as a 19th-century courtship. Here, two finely dressed cocks woo two finely dressed ladies. I’m sure their intentions are pure.

Surreal. A woman lies in the water, tight-clothed and open-legged and hard-nippled, her face underwater, being attended to by a giant cock. On a small cliff, a line of devils waits their turn to dive head-first into the woman’s vagina. In the foreground, some aquatic penises dive and spit.

A cock with a rifle, shooting at two flying pussies. It looks like he’s hit one. His pet cock-dog is ready to retrieve the pray. Speaking of prey: pray tell, what one can do with a hunted pussy? Is there a season, a bag limit?

I was taught not to blow my own horn. I guess I should have been taught how to blow it properly, musically. This devil seems to have the hang of it, reading music held up by a skeleton creature and having his own tail blown by a monkey (?) sitting on a skull.

This handsome devil sure has his eye (and not only) on the prize. What a rump. I think she knows what he’s looking at, don’t you?

I believe this is a big devil on his back in the water reading a book while using his cock as a mast to make himself into a kind of sailboat. There she blows! The mind sure must feel nice. As a breeze, of course.

Happy cock time.

More cock worshiping. This time, a lone woman kneels before the alter of Cock. All of these pictures have an air of anti-clericalism to them, but this one more than most. In that world, would a lesbian be the same thing as an atheist?

The woman lives on a cock farm. Every morning, she wakes up early and feeds the cocks, which are always ready to greet her. Some cocks are interested in her seeds; others are more interested in whatever’s under that dress. What that is, I dare not say. Hint: it’s not a turtle.

This Turkish-looking or otherwise Eastern devil is tall but still has a proportionally-enlarged member. Something tells me the little guy carrying his tail has an easier job than the two women at the front. Whatever pays the bills.

Cocks are generally limp and docile creatures. However, when they become startled or aroused, they may become aggressive and dangerous. A charging cock is to be feared. As such, they are not fit for petting zoos.

Cock fighting is the obvious description. What about: two dicks boxing? The one on the left seems more dignified than the one on the right (is headbutting allowed?); yet the one on the right is also holding a newspaper. As the Beatles sang: “very strange”. Makes a prescient caricature of MMA, though, doesn’t it?

“Buy a cock, any cock,” said the dark mistress, sweeping her hand across the devil’s fine selection of merchandise. “All shapes and sizes, colours and ethnicities. And if you want something else, we’ve got more in the basket.”

Damned if I know what’s going on here.

This one needs little description. It’s obviously two women playing net-less tennis with two rackets and a cock while a big-dicked devil fellates himself on a small hill in the background. He’s also the chair umpire. One of the ladies is playing left-handed. She’s obviously a fan of Rafa Nadal.

Sometimes it feels like you’ve got the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. At other times, it feels like you’re carrying a giant penis on your back. Two metaphors, one state of being.