What’s new
You have been warned …
3rd March 2023
Today’s new artist is Alessandro Biffignandi, a sex-and-horror comic illustrator enormously popular in his native Italy in the 1970s and 80s, almost unknown elsewhere. Time to change all that! See a great collection of his work now by clicking here.
Telling tales
25th February 2023
Our third new contribution from Louis Berthomme Saint-André today, his early 45 plates for a 1931 edition of Boccaccio’s ribald tales. The eroticism is oblique rather than explicit, but show Saint-André as an already accomplished artist. See them now by clicking here.
Forbidden fruits
23rd February 2023
Bold, expressive and loud – that’s today’s new artist, Ruth Bircham, with her wonderful fleshy, liquid encounters with the ‘forbidden fruits’ of the naked sexual human body. See her amazing work now by clicking here.
All and everything
21st February 2023
We stay with Louis Berthomme Saint-André today, as we have added the lovely rose-tinted line drawings from the 1932 edition of the famously long and detailed My Secret Life by the Englishman known only as Walter. See them all now by clicking here.
Every which way
20th February 2023
Possibly the most widely-reprinted erotic classic of all time, Gamiani is the ultimate threesome fantasy, and today we bring you the no-holds-barred plates to accompany the text by the great Louis Berthomme Saint-André. Orgies don’t come any better! See them now by clicking here.
Staying on top
16th February 2023
It’s always a great pleasure to add a portfolio by one of our favourite artists, and today we bring you André Collot’s 1929 illustrations for Brantôme’s classic Lives of Gallant Ladies (and how they achieved their nefarious goals). See them all now by clicking here.
Stained with sensuality
15th February 2023
It’s not easy to imagine the juxtaposition of stained glass and erotic art, but the combination is beautifully and powerfully realised in the work of the Italian artist Diego Tolomelli. His glowing colours and detailed glass painting can be seen now by clicking here.
It’s all Greek
11th February 2023
On the edges of erotic apart from the very explicit ‘extras’, any new portfolio from the master illustrator Maurice de Becque is worth spending time with, so today we bring you his 1928 Sonnica the Courtesan, a classic tale of love and war. See the whole set now, including the elephants, by clicking here. Enjoy!
Evolution …
9th February 2023
To Argentina today for the enigmatic artist Gigi Amaldi and her erotic True History of the World; yes, sex has always been a central aspect of the way we’ve evolved! See the whole series now by clicking here, and if you can tell us more about Gigi let us know.
Gay’s the word
7th February 2023
Sadly we lost the talented and much-loved gay artist Oliver Frey to cancer in August 2022, but in his memory we offer a great cross-section of his work as today’s new offering at honesterotica. See Bike Boy, The Street and more 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.