With its origins in nineteenth century music hall entertainments and vaudeville, in the early twentieth century burlesque emerged as a populist blend of satire, performance art, and adult entertainment, that featured strip tease and broad comedy acts that derived their name from the low comedy aspects of the literary genre known as burlesque.
The artform reached a low point after the 30's during a crackdown in what could be "socially acceptable", but saw a resurrgence in the 50's and again in the 2000's. So in honour of this fantastic artform I give you some of the best burlesque inspired art on deviantART:

and just a reminder, photos of burlesque performers actually PERFORMING belong in Photojournalism > Performing Arts. Portraits inspired by burlesque should be submitted to either, Glamour or Pin Up