What’s new
Scratch and sniff?
25th April 2021
Rafael Dussan’s art has been likened to cave paintings, exploring the infantile impulse to scratch the wall and draw bodies that move between one painting and another. See his thought-provoking Histoire de l’Oeil series, new on the website today.
Slip of the tongue?
21st April 2021
A special treat for you all today, a new portfolio from your favourite artist, Lynn Paula Russell. It’s the original drawings from her 2005 Going Down guide to cunnilingus. You could even buy one if you can afford it! See them all here.
Vulva appreciation
18th April 2021
If you didn’t look carefully, you might think that James Walter Lee’s delicate studies were beautiful seashells; in fact they help us appreciate the exquisite detail and enormous variety of women’s sexual landscape. New on the website today, see his vulva drawings here.
SM from an angry young artist
15th April 2021
Another daring and imaginative 1920s German illustrator today, Georg Scholz with his colourful portfolio of disturbing sadomasochistic images Marquis d’Aunage. They are up on the website now; you can see them here. Bravely honest or completely over the top?
Lust and vice …
14th April 2021
A brilliant graphic designer and innovative illustrator, the German Alphons Woelfle also had to have a try at an erotic portfolio – hence his 1930 Of Lust and Vice. Newly added to the website, you can now see it here.
Telling it how it is
13th April 2021
If you haven’t heard of the New York artist Betty Tompkins, you certainly ought to know her work. From her 1970s ‘Cunt Paintings’ to the ‘Women Words’ series, she makes us think carefully what we mean by porn, pleasure, and mutual respect. See her work here.
Those were the days …
12th April 2021
For those old enough to remember it, Tracy Nakayama, today’s new artist, transports us back to 1960s printed erotica, oh so novel and innocent, and transforms those hippy images into new artworks full of wistfulness and lost promise. See her work here.
Not just pretty young dancers
9th April 2021
If you thought that Edgar Degas just painted pretty pictures of ballet dancers, think again. He also spent a lot of time in Paris brothels making a series of honest and compelling drawings, the prints from which you can now see here. Enjoy!
Get your teeth into this …
8th April 2021
An important new artist at honesterotica today, probably the best-known Ex Libris (bookplate) designer of the twentieth century, Jean Morisot. And illustration wasn't all he was good at; he was also an excellent dentist! See his imaginative work here.
Obscene pictures of great amateurism
6th April 2021
‘Obscene pictures of great amateurism’ is the official verdict on today’s new artist, the obscure 1920s Herr Bénis. But his etchings do have a naive charm, and can still inspire and encourage today’s amateur artists! See them here, and imagine his life and times.
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.