What’s new
Italian embarrassments
2nd April 2023
The much-loved Italian cartoonist Guido Buzzelli is today’s new artist, with his chaotic scenes making fun of the hypocrisies, rituals and taboos of Italian society. Never overtly sexual, always humorously titillating, see his colourful scenes now by clicking here.
Beyond the boundaries
31st March 2023
Today’s new artist is the transgender Kimberly Wilder, whose drawings from the mid-2000s were an important part of an exploration of sexual freedom and identity. See what you think, and where it leaves your fantasies. See Kimberly’s drawings now by clicking here.
Rural romps
30th March 2023
A new portfolio today from Schem (Raoul Serres), better known as a French postage stamp designer but with a secret sideline in erotica! It’s his Little Cousins from 1948, which you can see all of now by clicking here.
Painting the passion
29th March 2023
‘It is assumed that works of art that exalt the eroticism of the female body must have originated in the eyes of a man: my passion for the human form proves this assumption emphatically wrong.’ This is the strong personal statement of today’s new artist, Inge Clayton, whose work can be found by clicking here.
Going down …
27th March 2023
We stay with Pierre Louÿs this morning, and the inimitable Rojan’s 1927 illustrations to accompany Louÿs’ Pybrac, which has been called ‘one of the filthiest books of poetry ever published’. You be the judge – click here to see them all. Enjoy!
Pas devant les enfants
26th March 2023
The poet Pierre Louÿs and the artist Louis Berthomme Saint-André are the perfect over-the-top partnership for the 1946 portfolio Poésies Érotiques. Every scene demonstrates the pair’s utterly outrageous erotic imagination. You can see them all now by clicking here. Enjoy!
The spices of (erotic) life
25th March 2023
A new helping of erotic humour today from the inventive illustrator André Collot, his 1955 portfolio Épices – Spices. Did you know that in French ‘confesses’ (confessions) can be divided into ‘con’ (cunt) and ‘fesses’ (buttocks)? See the whole shebang by clicking here.
Stirrings
23rd March 2023
And here’s the second complete high-resolution update – Frans de Geetere’s stark 1928 etchings for the story of two adolescent schoolgirls exploring their sexuality, Un été à la campagne. See them all now by clicking here.
The oldest profession
23rd March 2023
With many thanks to a Californian collector, we now have pleasure in updating a couple of important folios to complete high-resolution series – click here for the inimitable Rojan’s 1935 Examen de Flora. Can Flora become an exemplary prostitute?
French frolics
22nd March 2023
Subtly titillating rather than explicitly erotic, that’s today’s new portfolio from the French artist Gaston Barret. It’s his 1952 illustrations to Jean de La Fontaine’s ever-so-slightly-naughty seventeenth-century tales. See them all now by clicking here.
Important recent updates
✨ Illustrator and portfolio lists
One of the most common requests we get (and the responses to the recent questionnaire confirm this) is that it would be really useful to have complete listings of all the artists and portfolios on the website – as of May 2026 728 artists and 2,003 portfolios!
So we’ve listened and heard … and by following this link you will find files with these listings in alphabetical order (and where there are several portfolios with the same name their artists will be in order too). The lists are in PDF format, so you can download, save and search them. They duplicate what you can already find in the artist and portfolio listings on the website, but if you’re really into erotic art and illustration and would like a quick ready reference, you should find these invaluable. Enjoy!
✨ Helping you to find your way around
You asked for it, we’ve done it – all the artists on the site now have a set of ‘Similar artists’ links at the end of their biography, so whether it’s bookplate artists, spanking artists, gay artists, whatever, you can cruise easily from artist to similar artist. Have fun!
✨ Hans-Jürgen Döpp, 1940–2025
Few people have shared their wisdom, experience – and wonderful collection of erotic art – more than Hans-Jürgen Döpp, who sadly died last year at the age of 84. For more than half a century Hans-Jürgen devoted himself to the study and collection of erotic art, not as a marginal curiosity or a private indulgence, but as an essential part of human culture. Through his work as a scholar, teacher, curator, author and collector, he helped establish erotic art as a serious field of artistic and historical enquiry. He was an enthusiastic supporter of honesterotica, sharing more than 200 of his portfolios with us, helping to make the website a unique resource of erotic art that would otherwise have been lost to the world. Read our tribute to Hans-Jürgen here.
✨ The difficult mirror
Artists, childhood, and the challenge of looking
At a time of growing concern about online child safety, we are very aware of how we handle the sensitive subject of depictions of children in art, especially ‘erotic art’. We have added an important Themes and Topics article here, which helps explore how artists over time have depicted naked children, and why it is as important to think seriously about what art is for and how we look at and experience it as about what is actually being depicted. Read the piece and see what you think.