Sex Workers in Art History

Social Outcasts

Despite our glittering examples so far, the law rarely protects the sex workers, making them legal and social outcasts. Sex workers can be vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, exploitation, and violence. Activists who want to abolish sex work tend to see it as an inherently oppressive practice. On the other hand, sex-positive activists see the decriminalization of sex work as offering a safer, healthier working environment. They ask, which is worse? To sell your body in the bedroom? Or to breathe toxic chemicals in a garment factory? Or to toil for minimum wage in a giant warehouse where you have to pee in a bottle?

Saintly Sex Worker

The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. This is how the Christian Bible describes Mary Magdalene. This sex worker repented her life as a “sinner” and dedicated herself to Christ. Much loved by artists and art buyers because she presented the ideal female—a sinner in her heart and with her body, but like all good women, turning to virtue and prayer and eventually renouncing worldly pleasures. In the Titian painting below, while her face conveys spirituality, her body displays sensuality—quite titillating for the male viewer. Does female painter Artemisia Gentileschi show us a more complex character, absorbed in her spiritual feelings? Or is this one also just quite sexy?

More Biblical Harlots

Another biblical sex worker was Rahab the Harlot. The Book of Matthew records Rahab as an ancestor of King David, King Solomon, and Jesus himself. A heroine of Jewish history, Rahab is in fact very rarely mentioned in religious circles. Running an inn and a brothel, she hid spies in her house during the siege of Jericho and gained the gratitude of Joshua and the Israelites. Rahab saw the walls of Jericho fall, and she may also be the first one to use red to signal a sex worker’s location. She hung a red cord in her window to show she should be spared in the battle for Jericho. Is this the origin of the red light?

Erotic Greeks and Romans

In Ancient Rome, sex work was legal and licensed. Brothels were an accepted part of Roman culture, although class and status determined whether you were a client or a worker. Chastity and virginity were highly prized in women, yet most sex workers were female and slaves or former slaves. Graffiti evidence from Pompeii seems to indicate that male prostitution was present, but erotic art from that period, in brothels and in homes, is mostly heterosexual.

In the image below, we see Phyrne, who was a Greek hetaira (courtesan). Intelligent and witty, as well as beautiful, she was rewarded with significant freedoms. She is famously depicted by various artists, tearing off her clothes in court, and appealing for mercy from the judges in an impiety case brought against her. And yes, she was acquitted!

Japanese Pleasure Quarters

Historically, Japanese sex workers worked under strict social delineations. A concubine was a part of the household and had an ongoing sexual relationship with just one man. “Pleasure quarters” were walled, guarded, and taxed, but later criminalized in 1958. The yūjo were low-ranking workers, whilst tayū and oiran were the highest-ranking courtesans. A geisha is an artist and performer, not a sex worker, despite what Hollywood films tell you. Artists recorded life in the pleasure quarters, and brothel scenes became very collectable.

Dutch Pimps

In 17th-century Holland we see the rise of a particular kind of painting where women are presented as pimps within their own small-scale brothels. The women are depicted as scheming seducers, whereas the men seem lustful yet innocent fools. At the bordeeltjes (brothels), eating and getting drunk went hand in hand with sex work, and the paintings indicate that being cheated and robbed were also possible. At a time of witch hunts raging across Europe, religious morality and the condemnation of female sexuality were rife, and these “Procuress” paintings explore complicated ideas around sex and morality.

Hindu Widows

The ancient Rigveda literary texts show that sex work has occurred in India since 1500–1000 BCE. But in India in the 19th century, a darker story emerged. The Sundari sex workers mostly comprised Hindu widows who had no option but to turn to sex work to keep a roof over their heads. Sati (or suttee), where a widow was burned on her husband’s funeral pyre, had been outlawed. But the surviving widows had no place in society. Erotic images of these marginalized women are called Sundari (beautiful women), and they became popular amongst the wealthy elite and were also displayed in pleasure houses or brothels.

French Impressionists

In 19th-century Europe, the story continues. Red light districts were widespread in Paris, and the Impressionists were no strangers to the seedier side of life. Female artists were not allowed to visit or paint scenes of brothels, but male artists like Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec produced multiple images that reference sex work. Of course, at this point in history, sexual objectification and voyeurism were very much present. However, some artists were able to show a little more compassion than others. Manet and Degas painted to scandalize, while Lautrec wanted to present ordinary daily lives. Nana, in her working boudoir (shown below), was excluded from the Salon exhibition, deemed too improper for the public gaze.

Manet’s Olympia

When Manet’s Olympia was put on public display, the newspapers wrote of women bursting into tears and men howling in rage. This was not because the image was a sex worker. Gallery visitors had seen plenty of those. But Manet stripped away all the cultural, biblical, mythical, and erotic storytelling that had made images of prostitutes acceptable in the world of fine art. In a new painting style, he shows a prostitute in her boudoir, with an unapologetic and challenging stare. Critics were horrified.

Ballets and Brothels

During the 1800s in France, ballet dancing was linked to sex work. Many dancers were expected to engage in sexual relationships with wealthy male patrons. The “foyer de la danse,” where the dancers warmed up before performances, was frequented by wealthy men who were allowed to socialize with (and probably proposition) the ballerinas. Degas produced a whole series of works about brothels, which make for uncomfortable viewing, but they are upfront about the life of the dancers. A closer look at Degas’ ballerina paintings can often reveal shadowy sexual predators lurking in the wings, making the glittering girls and beautiful dresses seem somewhat less enchanting.

Moulin Rouge

Toulouse-Lautrec lived alongside the sex workers of Paris. His work seems to show a genuine empathy for them as he tries to capture their lived experience. His painting of women waiting for clients in a salon is realistic—the women look tired and bored. Rue des Moulins shows the indignity of forced medical inspections that 19th-century Parisian prostitutes endured. Lautrec avoids the cliche of the lustful or shamed woman, so common in art history.

Vincent van Gogh

Of a different order altogether is Vincent van Gogh, who took in a destitute, pregnant prostitute called Clasina Maria Hoornik (known as Sien). The only woman he ever lived with, Van Gogh drew and painted Sien many times. In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent wrote, “I feel a tender love for her and hold her children dear.” The couple spent two years together, but the relationship struggled and both died by suicide later in life.

Mississippi Madams

Ernst Joseph Bellocq was born in the USA to French parents. He recorded a particular time and place in American cultural history, capturing a compelling series of photographs of sex workers in Storyville, New Orleans. Now part of the Tremé neighborhood, Storyville was the legal red-light district of New Orleans in the early 20th century. His work, showing not just the workers but the homes they inhabited, wasn’t really discovered until after his death, but his evocative images have continued to inspire writers and filmmakers.

LGBTQIA+

The visual representation of non-heterosexual sex workers gets less attention from the art world, although sexualities and gender constructions that challenge heterosexist norms are very much in the news and on social media lately. In many of his exhibited paintings, Paul Cadmus (below) included coded references to queer sex work. The Met Museum believes that The Fleet’s In is the first public example of queer art censorship in the USA. The Navy took great exception to his portrayal of enlisted men consorting with prostitutes and ordered that it be hidden away. But Cadmus was delighted with the extra publicity the ban generated!

Medieval Transgenderism

Although some might have you believe that questioning gender is a modern phenomenon, the truth is that as long as there have been people, there have been questions around gender identity. A fascinating example is sex worker Eleanor Rykener from the 14th century. Born John Rykener, this transgender individual was arrested for soliciting clients. The London Archives hold the court transcripts where she describes that she had sex both as a man and as a woman, and preferred priests and nuns as they paid better!

Street Hustlers

On the whole, art history tends to represent sex workers through the lenses of sexual objectification and the male gaze. However, by the late 20th century, some artists were trying to subvert this idea, in photography and also in performance art. In the post-Stonewall era, several artists have made sex work a primary theme of their work. Perhaps one of the most well-known is David Wojnarowicz. Referring to himself as an ex-street hustler, his work is both erotic, angry, and tender. Other artists like Larry Clark and Peter Hujar documented their friends who were sex workers, strippers, or performance artists.

Nan Goldin’s Community

Queer and transgender sex workers feature in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin, and much of her other work too. Her loving and inclusive representations of her friends and acquaintances mark a turning point in our perception of sex workers. These people were the family Nan Goldin turned to when her world was a very dark place indeed.

Whore Power

Performance artist Carol Leigh, known as Scarlot Harlot, is an American artist and activist who came up with the phrase “sex work.” As a sex worker herself, she wanted to reflect the economic basis to the work, over the negative perceptions of sexual dysfunction and deviancy. Her performance art directly challenged the viewer into thinking about social issues that they might rather turn away from. The experience between viewer and performer can be intimate, even embarrassing, but definitely thought-provoking. Leigh died in 2022, but her ground-breaking work as an artist and an activist still resonates around the world.

Chinese Trailblazer

Sold as a child into prostitution, then a runaway who attempted to take her own life, Pan Yuliang moved from tragedy to trailblazer. She is a pioneer in modern Chinese art and cross-cultural art practices. Yuliang’s work draws from European Impressionist painting practices, blended skilfully with Chinese fine-line ink techniques. Her nudes (painted at a time when they were banned in China) brought a unique perspective both to sex work and to cross-cultural art practice.

A Moment Of Reflection

Prostitution is still one of the most aggressively punished crimes. Exploring art that portrays the lived experiences of sex workers is a way of expanding knowledge and raising awareness. Art has the power to expose us to social and political realities that we may not have been aware of, or that we feel uncomfortable with. Art by and about sex workers compels us to take a closer look, and examine our own beliefs—and perhaps our prejudices too? Reclaiming the social history of sex work, as well as allowing sex workers to speak for themselves, are both vital.

Poets and Philanthropists

Let us end with two astonishingly accomplished sex workers. Veronica Franco was a famous Venetian courtesan. This educated woman was known for her exquisite poetry, advocacy for women’s rights, philanthropy, and her sex work. Accused of witchcraft in 1577 (a common charge against sex workers), she later died in poverty. Her work transcends the time in which she lived.

Centuries before, Theodora (born 497 CE) became Empress of the Byzantine Empire.  Likely a child prostitute and actress, she passionately fought for laws on rape and child prostitution, and set up houses where sex workers could live peacefully. Her influence on Byzantine politics, law, and social change was profound. Perhaps our sex worker stereotypes really do need a major rethink?