Rare Reduce Sized Variant

A decorative Air France poster map by Lucien Boucher, based on his 1948 map. The map presents a lively pictorial view of the World, with Air France routes extending to Buenos Aires, the Eastern United States, Tehran, Calcutta, Shanghai, Manila, Saigon, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Madagascar, Mauritius, and East Africa.

The imagery used further adds to the attractiveness of the map. East Asia is represented with images of temples, tigers, and palaces. Wildlife and forests populate the wilder parts of the map. Planes can be seen to fly the various Air France routes, and ships of all make sail the oceans. Boucher's surrealist style is readily apparent in the present map.

Lucien Boucher was a famed French cartoonist of the mid-20th century. He trained at the ceramics school in Sevres and started his career as a cartoonist for a satirical magazine. Lucien Boucher then moved to launch a design career attuned to the commercial promise of surrealism. He was contracted by Air France started in 1935, and designed a number of travel posters for the company, working well into his seventies.

Boucher's work for Air France was key in revolutionizing the way in which airline advertisements occur. While previous work focused on advertising a single route, Boucher chose to portray Air France's extensive global empire in his advertisements. This contributed to a change in the way people thought about airlines and helped to create a branding image that we still recognize today for upper-tier airlines. For his work, Lucien Boucher became known as "Monsieur Planisphere" at Air France.

This is the small format version of the poster, printed with offset lithography.