Exposition : Petites voiles

Description

To celebrate the Year of the Sea, and in conjunction with the “Grandes Voiles” event in summer 2025, Le Havre’s Museums of Art and History invite you to plunge into the fascinating world of Le Havre’s maritime collections.

The European Heritage Days, organized on September 21 and 22, 2024 around the theme of itineraries, networks, connections and maritime heritage, open the year 2025 under the sign of the sea and the oceans.

From July 4 to 7, 2025, as if in resonance with this theme, the “Grandes Voiles du Havre” will bring together dozens of exceptional sailing ships to call at the heart of the historic port district. There, in the Paul Vatine, de l?Eure and Bellot basins, they will prepare for the launch, from Le Havre, of the Tall Ships Race 2025, preceding by a few months their cadets gathered in October for the start of the 17th Transat Café L?Or.

In this context, the city?s Museums of Art and History are making their own contribution to this dynamic. Around a hundred works from local heritage collections are on display at the Hôtel Dubocage de Bléville, presenting the image of the sailboat that is expected to be on display in the city?s docks in summer.

These “little” sails, displayed on the first floor and in two rooms on the second floor, celebrate the great hours of sailing and the city of Le Havre from the 16th to the mid-19th century. Shipbuilding, ship typologies and portraits, maritime activities: fishing, military, merchant, sporting and artistic worlds will be evoked through a selection of graphic works, paintings, models and objects of art or curiosity. Never-before-seen acquisitions, recently-restored drawings and old heritage collections examine the image of the sailboat in its many dimensions: functional, aesthetic, artistic, poetic and symbolic.

Gathered in the heart of a historic district, in the home of Michel Joseph Dubocage, ship?s captain, privateer and explorer, they make up, for the duration of their exhibition, a rich and surprising fleet, reflecting the history of our port city.