IOC Congress #4

Venue Paris (FRA)
Held 23 – 25 May 1906

Description

The 4th Olympic Congress was held at the Comédie-Française and Touring Club in Paris from 23-25 May 1906. This is the first Congress which stood alone – it is not considered an IOC Session. The theme was the “Integration of the Fine Arts in the Olympic Games.” The Organizing Committee was headed by Pierre de Coubertin who also served as the President of the Congress. The Patrons were Jules Clarétie, Director of the Comédie-Française and Henri Charles Étienne Dujardin-Beaumetz, French Secretary of State for the Fine Arts.

This was a small Congress with only about 60 delegates present, only five of whom were IOC Members, and no more than 10 foreigners. In his letter inviting the participants to Paris, Coubertin asked them “to come and study to what extent and in what way art and literature could be included in the celebration of the modern Olympiads.” In his opening speech, he described the goal of the Congress as finding a way to combine sport and art.

The 4th Olympic Congress was held shortly after the 1906 Intercalated Olympic Games and Coubertin’s duties with the Congress prevented him attending those Games in Athens. Some feel the Congress was organized by Coubertin as an excuse to miss the 1906 Olympic Games, as he did not support the idea of a separate series of Olympic Games to be held in Athens.

The program of the Congress discussed various forms of art by several commissions, notably architecture, dramatics arts, dance, decoration, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. The Congress closed in the auditorium of the Sorbonne with almost 2,000 guests on Saturday afternoon, 26 May. There were choirs singing, a number of actors from the Comédie Française performed recitations, and scientific lectures were given.

The final resolution of the Congress was to conduct five art competitions at each Olympic Games – in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. This was planned for the 1908 Olympics but was not carried out in that year. Art competitions entered the Olympic Program in 1912 at Stockholm, and remained on the program through the 1948 Olympics in London.