Ethnographie de Madagascar Musée de l'Homme 1941

This original French exhibition poster was designed by Jarl Falck for Ethnographie de Madagascar at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. The artwork bears the inscription “Falck 41,” indicating that the design was created in 1941, while institutional records date the printing of the poster to 1946.

At the centre of the composition, the silhouette of Madagascar is combined with the monumental skull and sweeping horns of a zebu. This striking image refers to an animal closely associated with the island’s pastoral traditions and cultural heritage.

The restrained palette of ochre, brown, black and cream gives the design an earthy and monumental quality. Strong symmetrical forms and shadowed typography create a dramatic image that remains immediately legible from a distance.

Falck worked on the graphic and museographic programmes of the Musée de l’Homme during the 1930s and 1940s. This poster printed in lithograph by Bedos & Cie in Paris reflects the institution’s distinctive approach to exhibition advertising during the period.

Both visually powerful and historically significant, this original poster is an important document of French museum design and the colonial-era presentation of Madagascar. It would make a compelling addition to a collection of exhibition posters, ethnographic imagery or twentieth-century French graphic art.

Original Poster

Ethnic - Colony - Madagascar

National Museum of Natural History - Museum Director: Achille Urbain

Good condition, minor restorations