Der Sündenfall (The Fall of Man) is the second of Hanf’s erotic portfolios from the early 1920s, here using the pseudonym ‘Cannabis’, a play on his own name, ‘Hanf’ being the German word for hemp. As with Die Brille, each engraving accompanies a poem, in this case a sonnet by ‘Ursus’. Again the portfolio was privately printed, this time in ‘Babylon’.

The plates for Der Sündenfall have more consistency, humour and narrative than those for Die Brille, featuring a rather cute elephant and a very cross God.

Unfortunately the copy of the portfolio we have only contains four of the seven plates; if you have access to the remaining three we would love to hear from you.

We are very grateful to Hans-Jürgen Döpp for these images; Hans-Jürgen, the compiler of many books on erotic art, curates the Venusberg online gallery and bookshop which you can find here.