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10 Works from Erotic Art Online to Start Your Collection

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Open for bidding from 2 to 16 February, the Erotic Art Online auction presents a diverse selection of erotic works of art spanning continents and centuries. With a stunning array of works of art on offer, drawn from a breadth of genres, media and price points, this online-only auction provides an excellent starting point for any aspiring collector. Click ahead to discover some of the highlights, from prints, photographs and paintings, to sculpture, drawings and film posters.

Erotic Art Online
2-16 February | Online

10 Works from Erotic Art Online to Start Your Collection

  • David Hockney, R.A., An Erotic Etching (Scottish Arts Council 172), 1975. Estimate £1,000–1,500.
    Created for Peter Webb’s historical 1975 survey The Erotic Arts, Hockney’s An Erotic Etching is a departure from his typical dreamlike approach to homoerotic portraiture. In this case, the subject is the sexual act rather than the participants, which served to normalise what was once considered taboo.


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  • Two illustrations depicting couples in intimate embrace, North India, Delhi, second half 18th century. Estimate £6,000–8,000.
    The treatment of love in Indian art is as diverse as the literature on the subject, whose topics range from the secrets of love, to the light of love, or of course the well-known Kama Sutra. This sale includes several examples of this tradition and these two miniatures, which show couples in intimate embraces are particularly interesting, especially the piece depicting two women, which remains a rarely depicted subject.

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  • Erotik poster, Swedish, 1929. Estimate £1,200–1,800.
    Fewer than twenty surviving examples of this poster are known. It was in a private Swedish collection for over thirty years, and was obtained direct from the printers, which is why it is unfolded. The film was made in Czechoslovakia and released as Erotikon, but the world-wide English title was Seduction.


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  • Francis Newton Souza, Untitled (Lovers), 1968. Estimate £1,000–2,000.
    Goan-born artist Francis Newton Souza is a seminal figure in the landscape of Indian modernism. His erotic works on paper are distinguished by a lavish sensuality; his figures are often consumed by lust and depicted unflinchingly in moments of erotic climax. Untitled (Lovers) captures an amorous couple with their limbs intertwined in a passionate embrace.



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  • David Bailey, Catherine in Turban, 1990. Estimate £1,000–1,500.
    Model Catherine Dyer’s meditative composure is both domestic and exotic in the intimate portrait Catherine in Turban  was taken by her husband: legendary photographer David Bailey, whose work defined the 1960s.


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  • Jean-Baptiste, called Auguste Clésinger, Femme piquée par un serpent (Woman Bitten by a Snake). Estimate £1,500–2,000.
    When Woman Bitten by a Snake was first presented in the Salon in 1847, it scandalised the public and critics alike. By showing the naked woman writhing in pain from the snake bite, with the snake twisted, rope-like, around her wrist, Clésinger created a highly suggestive image with clear erotic overtones.


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  • Antony Gormley, Body. Estimate £600–800.
    Through this work, Gormley wanted “to render the body as a field and to feel the body not as a knowable object, but a subjective space of becoming. Emergence and dissolution are equalized”. To achieve this, Gormley allowed his pigments to bleed unpredictably, creating an effect that suggests the cells within the human figure are escaping the barrier of his skin. Additionally, this bleeding effect provides an overall tactile quality to the piece.


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  • François-Louis-Joseph Watteau, called Watteau de Lille, An Allegory of Love. Estimate £1,500–2,000.
    This exquisite panel is typical of François-Louis-Joseph Watteau’s work in its elegance of line and freshness of colouring. An Allegory of Love depicts Cupid leaning on a plinth, surrounded by a sequence of joyful cherubs draped in garlands of flowers.


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  • Antoine Verglas, Angelina Jolie I, 2000. Estimate £1,000–1,500
    French photographer Antoine Verglas' style influenced fashion photography in the early 2000s. With his candid, factual, almost documentary approach, Verglas used available light to capture Angelina Jolie for British GQ in January 2000. Emblematic of Verglas’ transformational approach, she is shown at ease, ready to stride out of the frame.


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  • Jane Graverol, Le mariage du ciel et de l'enfer, 1972. Estimate £600–800.
    Le mariage du ciel et de l'enfer is a striking work by Jane Graverol, a key female figure in Belgian Surrealist circles. Her work began to acquire a more erotic quality in the 1960s, as evident in the present work, which plays on fire as a motif – the burning flames become those of heated desire.

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