Désiré Charnay is perhaps best known for his photographs of the ancient ruins of Central America and Mexico. He also created a small but important body of work on Madagascar, which he visited in 1863 as part of a scientific expedition. Charnay made several full-length portraits of Raharla, minister to Madagascar’s Queen Rasoherina. The present image was reproduced as a woodcut in Charnay’s Bird’s Eye View of Madagascar published in 1869.

An additional print of this image is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.