Mitja Leytho, almost certainly a pseudonym, is yet another mediocre yet fascinating amateur artist from the Germany of the 1920s about whom we know absolutely nothing beyond the four portfolios which bear the ‘Leytho’ signature.

There are a few clues. ‘Mitja’ is a Slovene first name, suggesting an eastern European provenance. The reference to the February Fasching festival in the 1923 Kalender points to a southern German setting, possibly Munich. And there are certain similarities with the equally-mysterious erotic artist ‘E. Bénis’, whose work you can see here – sad-looking men with square chins and slim women with small pointy breasts. As the 1931 Bilderlexicon der Erotik said of Bénis’s output, Leytho managed to produce ‘obscene pictures of great amateurism’, a description which describes much of the erotic illustration of the last hundred years.

Similar artists

Alphachanneling – Pseudonymous artist of spiritual, tantric-psychedelic erotic line drawings.
Carlo – Pseudonymous French illustrator of 1930s spanking and flagellation subjects.
Eko – Mexican cartoonist of transgressive ink drawings mixing eroticism, religion and politics.
Izvrasaki – Pseudonymous 1930s Eastern European painter of vividly coloured erotic albums.
Apollonia Saintclair – Contemporary digital illustrator of refined erotic subjects.
Saxkal – French creator of literate, imaginatively-illustrated erotic comic albums.