Jean Droit (1884 to 1961) designed this poster for the Games of the VIIIth Olympiad, and Hachard & Cie of Paris printed it in 1924. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds an example. Droit was a French painter and illustrator whose First World War soldier images are among his best-known work.
The raised-arm gesture shown here is the Olympic salute used at the time.
On the poster
Five bare-chested male figures stand in a staggered diagonal row with their arms raised in the Olympic salute, drawn with academic figure-drawing precision. Behind them the French tricolour fills the field in bold diagonal brushwork, terracotta orange on the left and red, white and blue sweeping across the right. In the lower foreground the coat-of-arms of Paris sits between crossed palm fronds. "PARIS_1924" runs across the top in heavy black slab-serif, and "JEUX OLYMPIQUES" [Olympic Games] reverses out in white across the base band.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
