La folle journée de Gaby d’Ombreuse (The Crazy Day of Shady Gaby) is a light-hearted illustrated romp through the erotic adventures of an upmarket Parisian escort as she enjoys the day pleasing herself and her various clients.

The idea for Gaby d’Ombreuse was probably Saint-André’s, as the eponymous Gaby appears nowhere else in the literature; the folder of 28 prints was published by Henri Pasquinelli, who also published Rojankovsky’s pictures-only narrative Idylle printanière (which you can see here).

The date of publication for Gaby d’Ombreuse is usually given as ‘late 1940s’, but the dress styles and similarity of publication presentation to Idylle printanière strongly suggest a much earlier date.

Gaby d’Ombreuse was produced in a numbered edition of 350 copies, which included both the colour versions and monochromes with small remarques, or marginal additions.

We are very grateful to Ghislain de La Hitte of Librairie l’Opiomane in Paris for providing these illustrations.