La nonne (The Nun) is a singular and quintessential collaboration between Tsugouharu Foujita and his friend Eric Losfeld (1922–79), a Belgian-born Paris-based publisher with a reputation for publishing controversial erotic material. The author is given as Le Comte d’Irancy and the illustrator as Pierre-Mac, but the title page leaves us in no doubt that it is Foujita and Losfeld sporting with the half-dressed sisters of mercy.

Foujita’s nuns are rather crudely drawn, which suggests a rapidly-fulfilled commission. Like so many similar titles, La nonne was officially banned in 1954, which undoubtedly led to its desirability.

In his memoirs, Losfeld wrote ‘In order to have a place among the great names of erotic texts, I wrote a book similar to those of the great eighteenth century fornicators. And every such text of necessity required some nuns.’ Losfeld’s tombstone inscription reads ‘Tout ce qu’il éditait avait le souffle de la liberté’ (Everything he edited had the breath of freedom).