Comic Bacchante

A bacchante by the Italian comic book writer and artist Milo Manara (born 1945). Manara is here quoting traditional academic paintings of the 19th century.

Modern Bather

In the Bath by the Italian painter Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931).

Gorgeous Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba (1562) by the Flemish manierist painter Jan Massys (1509-1575). A great example that already in the 16th century nude painting could be highly erotic. Kind of perfect.

Diamonds the Best Friends

Probably a cover illustration by the Brazilian artist José Luiz Benício da Fonseca (born 1936). Benício did a lot of illustrations for novels, cinema and advertising but probably he is best known for his covers for spy novels which look a little James Bond inspired.

Nude With a Veil

Nude With a Veil (1883) by the French painter Albert Aublet (1851 - 1938). It’s one of these typical fantasy bathing scenes, maybe in an oriental harem or somewhere in classical Rome or Greece or probably in a modern brothel.

Panther Girl

An amazing pulp cover from the golden Twenties by the American illustrator Margaret Brundage (1900-1976). Brundage did a lot of covers illustraion for Weird Tales. This highly stylized and simplified painting proves her great talent.

Oriental Esther

Esther Preparing Herself to Meet King Ahasuerus La Toilette d'Esther (1841) by the French Neoclassical painter Théodore Chassériau,(1819-1856). Despite the exotic oriental subject the clear lines of Neoclassical art are still dominant.

Straightforward Nude

A watercolor by the Scottish painter William Russell Flint (1880 - 1969). It’s so easy, straightforward done. I think he was one of the best.

Pulp Odalisque

Here another example by Robert McGinnis. It shows not only his passion for endless legs but also a kind of modern interpretation of 19th century orientalist paintings.

Exotic Cleopatra

Cleopatra (1865) Italian painter Mosè Bianchi (1840-1904). Despite the subjects pretends to be historical Bianchi painted much more a typical oriental harem scene

Three Graces

The Three Graces (c. 1763) by the French Rococo painter Carle or Charles-André van Loo (1705–1765). Pure decoration but obvious how much modern pin-up artists owe to Rococo art.

Erotic Back

One of these highly elegant and erotic women by the American artist Fritz Willis (1907-1979).