#watercolour album

Beautiful watercolours of Madagascar

Album by Henri Letrillard: 68 original photographs & 19 watercolours, signed with initials or full name. Oblong 4to. 1895 -1902.

A well-executed album compiled and drawn by Henri Letrillard, a French officer serving in Madagascar, transformed by the 19 watercolours in his hand, which are made with wit and vigour and vividly illuminate the domestic life of the military administration of the island.
The years 1896 to 1904 saw a series of insurrections led against the French military and other foreign influences. The French, using their experience in Indo-China used the counter-insurgency “oil-spot” principle, where secure bases were established, from which a ring of stability would spread. Letrillard appears to have served in two such settlements, Madirovalo and Namorako, both some way inland from the north-west coast. Both Madirovalo and Namorako had defended bases, with lookout towers, surrounded by wooden ramparts and drawbridges. These stockades are shown several times in his watercolours but not in the photographs, nor in any other photographs we have seen before of Madagascar.
The photographs capture scenes of daily life showing both settlers and natives, views of Diego Suarez, Vohemar, Nossi Bè [sic], Antananarivo and Mahajunga (sometimes spelt here Majunga), and one photograph of Djibouti. One large photograph is of a firing squad “le peloton d’éxecution” at Majunga: the victim is not in the frame, but the event is well attended by onlookers. The caption records the officer in charge of the firing squad was later killed by the enemy in Lampasika.
The album concludes with numerous shots of French soldiers at camp including an exceptional photograph of soldiers on a hunting trip, posing very theatrically in front of their tent.