Back in May, Pornhub took us back to the 1890s, remastering century-old porn videos, from the first ever kiss captured on film, to kinky 1920s cosplay. Now, the porn streaming platform is looking even further back in time, with an interactive tour of historic NSFW artworks, titled Classic Nudes.
“There’s a treasure trove of erotic art around the world — depicting nudes, orgies, and more — that’s not available on Pornhub,” explains adult actor Asa Akira, who narrates an oral history of 30 erotic art pieces for the project. “These pre-Internet art pieces are currently sitting in museums, which we are now finally able to start visiting again as COVID restrictions are starting to lift.”
As people head back to six featured galleries — the Louvre, the Met, the National Gallery, the Prado, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Musee d’Orsay — they can access Pornhub’s Classic Nudes project to “enjoy every single brushstroke of these erotic masterpieces”, Akira adds.
Viewers can also follow a handy map provided by Pornhub (to skip “right to the good stuff” — AKA the nudes) or, in lieu of an in-person visit, take a virtual tour via the Classic Nudes website, and access each artwork online.
The descriptions themselves feature a tongue-in-cheek look at art history. “If Pornhub existed back in Paul Cézanne’s day, we’re pretty sure that his top search term would’ve been ‘women bathing,’” reads a description of the artist’s Bathers, from 1874. Elsewhere, Pornhub provides a potted history of Courbet’s ever-controversial painting The Origin of the World.
If you’d rather watch a (very NSFW) recreation of some of the classic artworks on Pornhub itself, the platform has also partnered with the amateur performers “MySweetApple”, who “bring to life” six paintings from Goya, Titian, Degas, and more.
Watch Pornhub’s promotional video for Classic Nudes — featuring artist and former porn star Cicciolina — below, and find the full project here.