What’s new
Czech him out …
3rd June 2025
Today’s new artist is the master Czech engraver Pavel Hlavatý, who integrates erotic themes into detailed settings to create bookplates and etchings on classical, historic and social themes, well worth taking your time to explore. See his work now by clicking here.
Surreal or too-real?
1st June 2025
Today’s new artist is the inventive, reclusive Belgian surrealist Armand Simon, whose drawings explore the world of the erotic through thought-provoking juxtapositions and sometimes rather-too-real fantasies. See Armand Simon’s work now by clicking here.
Naked attraction
28th May 2025
Today we have not one but two new portfolios illustrating René Boylesve’s La leçon d’amour dans un parc (Love Lesson in a Park), featuring an alluring male statue and lots of naked women. Umberto Brunelleschi’s 1933 version is here, and Antoine Calbet’s from 1942 here. Enjoy!
Out of the closet, into the barn
26th May 2025
Today’s new artist, Neel Bate, was a pioneer of gay art. His 1948 The Barn, a graphic narrative depicting an encounter between a farmboy hitchhiker and a motorcyclist seeking shelter from the rain, affirmed and inspired many others. See Bate’s work now by clicking here.
Lesbiennes …
22nd May 2025
A small achievement today, but one we’re very happy about – we’ve just added our fiftieth Paul-Émile Bécat portfolio to the site! It’s his 1952 illustrations for an account of the (fictional?) eighteenth-century lesbian sect The Anandrines. See them all now by clicking here.
In the swing
20th May 2025
Fancy a bit of colourful sexy night life, a seedy bar in a back street, or a Mediterranean beach? Then today’s new artist, Karl Gietl, is your man. Click here for an eyeful of his colourful works (and by the way, he loves naked women with their legs apart).
Raw strength
13th May 2025
In the powerful paintings of Daniel Barkley, today’s new artist, the naked body is centre stage, simply and without artifice. Stripped of their clothing-mask, endowed with a raw nudity, the expressive strength of his figures, straddling real and imaginary worlds, is remarkable. See his work now by clicking here.
Classy French undressing
11th May 2025
Today’s new artist, Paul Lemagny, was a distinguished French painter, engraver and illustrator, celebrated for his technical mastery and artistic versatility. Only a little of his work verges on the erotic, but very elegantly so – see three of his portfolios 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.