The only place that this collection of Ungerer drawings appeared was in the 2002 Taschen collection Erotoscope. They demonstrate his complex relationship with female sexuality, and the ways in which he, his erotic imagination, and the women he has known, view intimate relationships in rather different ways.

Let him offer the background to these drawings in his own words: ‘This is a book that was never published, a gallery of women’s fantasies come true. Young or old, whatever their social standing, women harbour a nagging yearning for some outlandish experience, nurturing and pampering shameful libidinous fantasies. Women are often appalled by my drawings of the female gender. And rightly so. But a world crowded with perfect women would be drab and tedious. I have never met one, thank God. This gallery is in a way a kind of homage, since I like them the way they are. I hope that my many models are still alive and kicking. And to expose the ridiculousness of the opposite sex is a way of stating one’s respect. All we need now is a female artist to do the same for men, who are all pigs, dogs and monkeys.’

This feels rather a negative analysis of the present state and future choices for honest intimacy, so we trust it was written in trademark Ungerer tongue-in-cheekness.