What’s new
The Art Deco nude and its legacy
19th February 2022
Erté, ‘The father of Art Deco’, is today’s new artist, and you can see his work by clicking here. To what extent he can be considered within the definition of erotic we leave to you to decide; his work has certainly been a turn-on for many over the years!
Pornography or art – the eternal debate
18th February 2022
Today’s new artist is the Spanish Surrealist Jorge Castillo, and his 1972 exploration of the elements of porn in his Pornographisme portfolio. Well worth spending time with. See his work now by clicking here. Enjoy!
A Paris gallery with a novel approach to ‘difficult art’
17th February 2022
As anyone who knows Paris well will be aware, it probably has more art galleries per square kilometre than any other city in the world. So it is a brave individual who chooses to establish something new and different in ‘the city of light’. This, however, is exactly what art lover and… read more
A complex gay pioneer
16th February 2022
Jean Boullet was a man ahead of his time. Openly gay, leather-clad, with a taste for the bizarre and gothic, he would not be out of place in one of Paris’s gay bars today. He proclaimed himself ‘an artist of male beauty’, and you can see his work now by clicking here.
Cherchez les femmes …
9th February 2022
We’re now just two weeks from the deadline for you telling us all about the qualities of erotic art that you find particularly appealing, and we’ve had some fascinating responses. But ... so far nothing from our wonderful (but silent) women followers. We can’t believe you don’t have important and useful things to say about your response to erotic illustrations. So get those brains whirring and fingers tapping. Click here for more details, and write to us today at [email protected]. We can’t wait!
150 years old, but very modern!
8th February 2022
Albert Hendschel was Germany’s best-known illustrator for half a century from 1870, but not many knew about his erotic output. What little of it has survived is now on the website here – it includes a happy foursome, and a number of dildos and strap-ons.
Décor with an erotic twist …
7th February 2022
Best known as one of the great masters of the Art Nouveau poster, we have great pleasure today in bringing you Henri Privat-Livemont’s more explicitly erotic side, including the most amazing genitally-themed boudoir decorations. See his work now by clicking here.
Nineteenth-century Parisian frissons
5th February 2022
Back to the nineteenth century today, with some rather suggestif engravings from Paul Gavarni, probably the best known and popular Parisian illustrator of his time. Relatively innocent maybe, but consent not very high on the agenda … See his work now by clicking here.
A fabulous erotic cabaret comes to town!
4th February 2022
A talented painter with an instantly-recognisable realist style and attention to detail, today’s new artist is David Delamare and his wonderful fantasy cabaret portfolio Animerotics. Remarkable art from an original imagination! See the whole set now by clicking here.
Freeing the Swiss imagination
3rd February 2022
Many ‘conventional’ illustrators had to keep their erotic output secret in order to maintain their livelihood; none more so than today’s artist, the Swiss Marcel Vidoudez, whose stash of watercolours was found after his death. Now we can share them 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.