Andre Cassagnes died in Paris on 16 January, the Ohio Art Company, the US-based firm that made the toy, said.
Mr Cassagnes came up with the idea for a mechanical toy that creates erasable drawings by twisting two dials in the late 1950s, while working as an electrical technician.
Picked by the Ohio Art Company at a toy fair in 1959, Etch A Sketch went on to sell more than 100 million copies.
Etch A Sketch, with its familiar red-frame, grey screen and two white dials, allows children to draw something and shake it away to start again.
Mr Cassagnes saw the potential for the toy when he noticed, while working with metal powders, that marks in a coating of aluminium powder could be seen from the other side of a translucent plate.
The Ohio Art Company spotted the invention at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959, and the next year it became the top-selling toy in the United States.
"Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that," the firm's president Larry Killgallon said.
"His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time."
The toy may seem old-fashioned in an age of tablet computers, but the Ohio Art Company says it still has a steady market, thanks in no small part to its appearance in the Toy Story movies.
And it became a feature of last year's US presidential campaign, when an aide to Republican candidate Mitt Romney likened his campaign to the toy.
"You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again," said campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, a comment seized upon by his rivals as evidence that Mr Romney was willing to change his position to get elected.
Etch A Sketch has been named by the American Toy Industry Association as one of the most memorable toys of the 20th century.
As well as being the man behind Etch A Sketch, Andre Cassagnes also developed a reputation as the most successful designer of competition kites in France during the 1980s.

Sturm won a split decision after a superb fight with two judges favouring Sturm by 116-112 and the other seeing it 115-113 for Macklin.
Sturm's sharper work in the second half of the contest swung the fight his way.
Macklin made a blazing start which gave him genuine hope of an upset before fading late on.
Sturm is unbeaten in five years and was making his 10th defence in his second reign as WBA middleweight champion, on his own show in his home city.
But if the odds were stacked against Macklin, who had himself not tasted defeat since 2006, he shrugged them off in an explosive start in which he slung hooks to Sturm's body and made the champion cover up.
Far from blowing himself out, Macklin appeared to grow stronger as the early rounds progressed with Sturm relying on single, accurate shots to repel his opponent's continuous advances.
But Sturm finally got to grips with fight as it moved deeper into the second half, gaining control behind a stiff jab which had scarcely been in evidence in the opening stages.
Sturm enjoyed a big 10th round when a crashing uppercut followed by a right cross had Macklin temporarily in trouble, but the Irishman continued to fight back in pursuit of his dream.
Sturm caught the eye again in the last, finishing the contest with a furious assault which left Macklin almost out on his feet. Although both men claimed victory at the end, the verdict went with Sturm.
Macklin insisted: "I should be champion. I believe I was the better fighter, but it is not Felix's fault, he wasn't a judge."
But Sturm said: "It wasn't a wrong decision, but it was close.
"It was not my most outstanding performance, but I have had a few clear shots and Matt worked hard. In my view, the decision was absolutely correct.
"We will definitely have a second fight, we have already agreed it."
Meanwhile, Kell Brook kept his world title ambitions on course with a comfortable points victory over Lovemore N'Dou in his home city of Sheffield.
Brook now has 24 wins and no defeats, although he was unable to extend a run of eight wins inside the distance against the wily veteran.
The inventor of the classic toy Etch A Sketch has died at the age of 86.
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Germany's Felix Sturm edged a tough contest against Birmingham-based Irishman Matthew Macklin in their WBA middleweight title fight in Cologne.