Visual Arts

The top 10 romantic artworks

By Lucy Scovell on 8/2/2018

From the filthy to the romantic, art celebrating erotic pleasure has thrilled artists and collectors for centuries.
As Sotheby's plays host to the much-anticipated Erotic: Passion & Desire sale next week, we round up 10 of the best romantic artworks celebrating pleasure in the most sensual and provocative ways (leaving pornography aside, of course).
Just in time for Valentine's Day, this selection will make even the most liberal among you hot under the collar. Enjoy.

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Renate Bertlmann, Cactus, 1999

A prominent figure of the European feminist movement of the 1970s, Renate Bertlmann’s multi-disciplinary oeuvre shocks, engages, angers and mocks. Her direct socio-political approach and overtly sexualised portfolio received much criticism during the seventies. Often misconstrued as disgusting and repellent – she was relegated to the back bench.

Thankfully, in the light of recent discussions on female post-war artists, a solo show at Sotheby's S2 gallery last year and a prominent feature in Sex Work at Frieze last October, Bertlmann is back in the limelight. Pink dildos, latex-clad phalluses and inflated condoms populate much of her most audacious work.

While Bertlmann has been criticised for being ‘phallus-obsessed’, her art often positions the man as the object of sexual denunciation. In Cactus, the male body is stripped bare and patriarchal oppressions appear to collapse.