What’s new
Breaking free
4th July 2025
One of our favourite contemporary artists, Jan van Rijn, has now produced a new, more sumptuous, version of his Querida, the story of a woman who oscillates between her existence as a wooden marionette and as a human. See the new Querida portfolio now by clicking here.
Come up and see my etchings …
2nd July 2025
Today’s new artist, Martin Erich Philipp, produced an extensive portfolio of erotic bookplates and etchings, demonstrating his mastery of the medium and his fearlessness when it came to explicit imagery – not to mention his humour. See his work now by clicking here.
Très risqué …
22nd June 2025
The French artist Georges Mouton was known in polite circles for his portraits and scenes of Algerian life, but for select clients he produced watercolours and small cards with lots of sexual congress, plus voyeurism, spanking, group sex and orgies. See his work now by clicking here.
In the Time to Come
20th June 2025
Today’s new artist is American Mark Price, with his imaginative exploration of a brave new world of sex, gender and relationship fluidity, made possible through art in a way that isn’t quite so easy in real world interactions. See Mark’s work now by clicking here.
More Bécat …
17th June 2025
Yes, even more of the wonderful Paul-Émile Bécat! Today’s new portfolios – we’ve added his 1947 Les Baisers (Kisses) and the 1959 Lettres de la Marquise – Les Baisers are here and the Marchionesse’s love letters here. Fifty-four Bécat works down, around a dozen still to go! Enjoy …
The realm of Eros
15th June 2025
‘In the realm of the erotic, Klaus Böttger’s art is the most accomplished that I have ever seen,’ wrote Oliver Maitland in the foreword to Böttger’s 1999 portfolio Eros & Thanatos. We have all of these plus his earlier work, all of which you can see by clicking here. See what you think.
Brave new world
13th June 2025
Something a bit light and witty for you all today – Joseph Hémard’s risqué tongue-in-cheek illustrated Géographie, a primer for 20-60-year-olds about France and the wider world. Amazing that it was written in 1928, nearly a hundred years ago. See it now by clicking here.
Behold!
11th June 2025
Sinuous lines and subtle colours are the hallmark of the erotic etchings of today’s new artist, Byelarus-based Alexander Shappo. See his mesmerising Ecce Femina portfolio now by clicking here.
Vous avez dit bizarre
9th June 2025
Another contemporary French erotic-surrealist artist for you today, with the added attraction of recently moving into depictions of exhibitionism – this is Perpignan-based Alain Bonnand, whose innovative and thought-provoking work you will find by clicking here.
Bohemian rhapsody
5th June 2025
We’re always on the lookout for new portfolios by the great Paul-Émile Bécat, and today we bring you his etchings for Scènes de la vie de Bohème, the 1851 novel that launched the ‘bohemian’ lifestyle and inspired Puccini’s opera La Bohème. See them all 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.