Concours Internationaux D'Escrime - after Jean de Paleologue (PAL)

Christophe Adrien (Count) Regley de Koenigsegg

A watercolor miniature of the poster by Jean do Paleologue, who signed as "Pal", created for the 1900 Summer Olympics in France. It was the first year that women were allowed to participate in the Olympics, a fact Pal chose to highlight in this image of a smartly dressed fencer - despite the fact that it would be another four years until women could compete in that particular sport. Pal's subject choice may have been due to artist Jean Beraud's popular oil paintings from the 1890s featuring female fencers, his most famous image titled "L'Escrimeuse" (The Swordswoman) featuring the beautiful Marguerita Sylvia in a black fencing costume with a red heart sewn to her blouse, lounging on a red velvet sofa. Participating or not, Pal decided the image of a dashing young female fencer was too tantalizing an image to bypass for his Olympics poster.

Lasting five months, the 1900 summer games were part of the Exposition Universelle (Paris Exposition); as such, the games were minimally marketed in favor of the glamorous events of the fair itself, and as a result, many of the athletes didn't know that they'd participated in the Olympics at all - an oversight that would not be repeated.

Koenigsegg recreates the dynmaic poster in iminiature, capturing the jaunty woman in full escrimeur regalia, complete with the three swords of competition: the foil, the epée, and the saber.