Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Poster

This poster for the Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games was created by Johannes (Jos) Rovers (1893-1976), a Dutch sculptor and painter. Ten thousand copies of the poster were circulated in the Netherlands and internationally. The figure of a runner dominates the composition, with a view of the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium in the background. The symbolic Olympic flame was lit for the first time at Amsterdam 1928, and this poster includes the Olympic cauldron as well.

After a long legal dispute, Rovers’ descendants were awarded intellectual property rights to this poster in the 1990s and banned the International Olympic Committee from using it moving forward. Subsequently, the Committee selected a book cover by Swiss painter Emil Huber (1883-1943) as the new official poster for the 1928 Games.