‘Jean Jouy’ is another of those French illustrators from the 1930s and 40s who never actually existed except as a pseudonym who only produced one set of illustrations, in this case for an anthology of more or less classically-inspired erotica.

The style of the illustrations in this one-off portfolio are perhaps closest to the work of Schem (Raoul Serres) or Rojan (Feodor Rojankovsky), though why either of these popular illustrators would need to use another pseudonym is hard to imagine.

And why ‘Jean Jouy’? ‘J’en jouis’ in French means ‘I’m enjoying this’, from the verb ‘jouir’, to enjoy. Used sexually it also means ‘to come’, so ‘j’en jouis’ is one way of saying ‘I’m coming!’. Now you know.

Similar artists

George Barbier – French art-deco illustrator whose Bilitis illustrations set the genre’s tone.
Édouard Chimot – French illustrator of a 1925 Bilitis edition in a similar idiom.
Serge Czerefkov – Russian-French émigré illustrator of Pierre Louÿs's Aphrodite.
Izvrasaki – Pseudonymous 1930s Eastern European painter of vividly coloured erotic albums.
Rojan – Russian-French illustrator whose style is Jouy's closest match.
Schem – French illustrator whose style is close to Jouy's.