Adolescence

Gerald Brockhurst's "Adolescence", a seemingly innocent, although highly sensual print, became one of the most important, influential and familiar erotic icons of the 1930s. Few of its admirers, however, could have known the true background to the image.

The model for the image was Dorette Woodward, the artist's fifteen year-old mistress, who was living with the virtuoso etcher at the time. Along with Brockhurst's wife and sister-in-law, she later became involved in Brockhurst's scandalous and acrimonious 1940 divorce.

The original is now priced far beyond the reach of most collectors, and has fetched more than £10,000 at Christie's auction rooms.