Emile Gilliéron, the Swiss iconographer of the first Olympic Games

Swiss artist Emile Gilliéron designed the poster, trophies and commemorative stamps for the 1896 Olympics in Athens. An exhibition at the Louvre in Paris is paying tribute to his work. The commemorative-album cover for the first modern Olympic Games – held in Athens in 1896 – has long been considered the first Olympic poster. It features a Greek woman holding an olive wreath and myrtle branches, the winners’ prizes. Until recently, no one knew who had created it. But in 2018, research by the École française d’Athènes (French school of Athens) finally revealed the designer: Emile Gilliéron, an accomplished Swiss artist. By the 1890s, Gilliéron was an expert on antiquity, and his poster offers a subtle mix of ancient images. Hercules appears in the foreground as a child, symbolising Olympia, birthplace of the Olympics. The Acropolis in Athens is visible in the background. Baby athletes decorate the very top, copied from a sarcophagus from … ancient Rome! Gilliéron was not only an ...