Buying erotic art
Buying art direct from the artist: what changes
8 min read ▪ 30 August 2026
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Removing the middle of a transaction changes four things and costs you one. Willem van der Krieken sets out both sides, including the side that is not in his favour.
What changes when you buy art directly from the artist?
Four things. No second margin sits in the price. The person who answers your question is the person who painted it. The provenance starts with you as first owner rather than with a resale. And when something goes wrong there is one address instead of two. What it costs you is a third party standing between you.
- Direct does not automatically mean cheaper. It means the price is not also paying rent on a room in a city centre.
- The answers are first-hand: what is under a colour, why the painting stopped when it did, what the edges look like.
- The trade-off is real. A gallery is also a buffer, and buying direct means there is not one.
What a gallery actually does
It is worth being fair about this before removing it, because “cut out the middleman” is a sales line and not an argument.
A gallery keeps a physical room in an expensive street, lights it, insures what is in it, and puts work in front of people who were not looking for it. It selects. It carries the cost of the work that does not sell. It handles the awkward conversations, and it gives a buyer somebody to go back to who is not the person whose feelings are involved.
All of that is real work, and a gallery’s commission is a substantial share of what you pay. The question is not whether a gallery earns it. It is whether, for this purchase, you are buying any of it.
Buying direct is a different arrangement, not a discount on the same one. And it is a separate question from whether the shop you are looking at is a real studio at all — that has its own seven checks in where to buy erotic art online without ending up on a print farm.
The four things that change
1. The price carries one margin instead of two
Nothing here promises that a painting is cheaper than the same painting in a gallery would be, because that comparison does not exist: there is no gallery version. What is true is structural. A price set by a studio has to cover the canvas, the paint, the weeks and the shipping. A price set through a gallery has to cover all of that plus the room, the staff and the commission.
The practical effect is that you can ask what the money is for and get an itemised answer. Try that with a listing that reached you through three parties.
2. You can ask the maker, and it is the maker who answers
Some questions have exactly one person who can answer them. What is underneath that colour. Why the painting stopped when it did. What the photograph looked like before it became a canvas. Whether the edges are painted or bare. How long it actually took, as opposed to how long it usually takes.
A gallery will find out for you, eventually, filtered. A marketplace will send a template. Direct, you get the answer from the person who was standing in front of it. That is not a service level; it is just who is at the other end of the email.
3. The provenance starts with you
Provenance is the record of who has owned a work. It matters later, and it is much harder to reconstruct than to keep.
Bought direct, the chain is one link long: studio to you, with a certificate of authenticity from the person who made it. There is no earlier owner to trace, no gap, no auction lot number to look up. If the painting is ever sold on, that is the strongest starting position a work can have, and it costs nothing to have it — you simply keep the certificate.
4. When something goes wrong there is one address
Two parties in a transaction can each be certain the other is handling it. One party cannot.
That cuts both ways and it is dealt with honestly in the next section. But the version that helps you is this: a question about a delayed parcel, a damaged corner or a colour that is not what you expected goes to the person who packed it, and the answer comes from someone who can actually do something about it.
Gallery, marketplace, studio
| Gallery | Online marketplace | Direct from the studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers a question about the work | Staff, relaying | Support, from a template | The person who painted it |
| What the price also covers | Room, staff, commission | Platform fee, sometimes fulfilment | The object, the weeks, the shipping |
| Who selected the work | A curator | An algorithm, or nobody | Nobody. The judgement is yours |
| Provenance at purchase | Gallery to you | Often unclear | Studio to you, one link |
| If something goes wrong | A third party mediates | A dispute process | One address, no buffer |
| Can you stand in front of it first | Yes | No | No |
The last row is the one people underestimate, and it is not solved by better photographs. What a photograph can and cannot settle — and colour is the thing it never settles — is set out in is it really hand-painted, and how to check before you buy.
What you give up
A neutral third party. This is the honest cost and it is the whole reason the previous section is not a sales pitch. A gallery’s dispute process is slow and impersonal, and that is exactly its value: it is somebody else’s. Buying direct, a disagreement is between you and the person who made the object. Most people find that easier. Some do not, and they are not wrong.
A room to stand in. No opening, no viewing wall, no chance to see the paint in daylight before you decide. Photographs of the actual canvas are the substitute and they are a good one, but they are a substitute.
Curation. A gallery shows you a selection and takes responsibility for it. A studio shows you what it made. That is more honest and it is more work, because the filtering is yours to do — which is what how to choose one painting when you like several is for.
Because there is no third party, the mechanics of the order have to be stated plainly instead of assumed: what you pay with, how long it takes, what the box looks like, and what happens if it is wrong. That is a separate article and it is what happens after you click buy.
What it looks like here
One painter, one studio in Boekel in the Netherlands. Twenty-three canvases and nine signed editions, each made once. Everything ships insured, worldwide, from the Netherlands, with a certificate of authenticity in the box.
There is no gallery, no representative and no sales team, which means the email is answered by the person who painted the thing you are asking about — sometimes the same day, sometimes not, because he is painting. That is the arrangement, stated rather than dressed up.
It also means the judgement is entirely yours. Nobody here is going to tell you a painting is a good investment, or that it suits you, or that it is the last one. What can be said is factual: what it is made of, how big it is, how many exist, and what happens to it between the studio and your wall.
Elisa (Appetite), 100 × 80 cm at €750, is one of the twenty-three. Ask something specific about it and see what comes back — the contact page goes to one inbox. The full series is here.
Everything one studio has for sale at a given moment fits on a single page: erotic art for sale.
Questions people ask
Is it cheaper to buy directly from the artist?
Not automatically, and anyone promising that is guessing. What is true is structural: a price set by a studio covers the materials, the weeks and the shipping, while a price set through a gallery covers all of that plus the room, the staff and the commission. Direct means one margin instead of two, which is a different thing from a discount.
What can I ask an artist that a gallery cannot answer?
Anything about the making of the object. What is underneath a colour, why the painting stopped when it did, what the source photograph looked like, whether the edges are painted or bare, how long that particular canvas took. A gallery relays those questions and a marketplace answers with a template. Direct, the reply comes from the person who was standing in front of it.
Does buying direct affect provenance?
It gives you the shortest chain there is: studio to you, one link, with a certificate of authenticity signed by the maker. There is no earlier owner to trace and no gap in the record. Keep the certificate with the work, because provenance is far easier to maintain than to reconstruct.
What do you give up by not buying through a gallery?
Three things. A neutral third party, so a disagreement is between you and the person who made the work rather than mediated by someone else. A room to stand in, since there is no viewing wall and photographs are a substitute. And curation: a studio shows you everything it made and leaves the judgement to you.
