A late – and well-executed – portfolio of van Mäele drawings was commissioned by Jean Fort to illustrate this sado-masochistic narrative by the proflific Pierre Mac Orlan, here using the pseudonym Pierre de Jusange. La comtesse au fouet (The Countess with the Whip) tells the story of Maria, who at a very young age discovers her true nature by reading Sader-Masoch’s novels, and from then on knows that her vocation is to satisfy her desire for sexual domination. A powerful and attractive woman, Maria uses her charms to subdue the man who becomes her husband, Count Carnoski. Carnoski serves as a willing slave who she can whip when Maria’s faithful maid, Émilienne, is no longer enough, but after being forced by Maria to kill an overly insistent rival suitor, Carnoski dies, leaving his fortune to his wife.

A sample of Mac Orlan’s racy over-the-top narrative:

You will come to my studio, I will show you my paintings. I have a girl, a little Florentine who lives on the other side of the Arno. You will see her, she is so pretty, a poor darling. Can you believe that her parents whip her so cruelly? At the word whip, Carnoski looked Maria straight in the eye. A flame of inconceivable desire passed through her pupils. At that precise moment she wanted, in all the intensity of her passion, to feel the white flesh of that sweet young girl throbbing under her whip.