Revoir Normandie

Presented first in Paris and subsequently in Le Havre, Revoir Normandie brought together a selection of previously unpublished images documenting the construction, launch and maiden voyage of the Normandie in 1935. Commissioned by Vu magazine to cover the crossing from Le Havre to New York, Roger Schall produced one of the most complete visual records of the legendary ocean liner, capturing both its monumental architecture and the life unfolding on board. The exhibition formed part of the celebrations marking the 90th anniversary of the maiden voyage and the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, whose aesthetic ideals found one of their greatest expressions in the Normandie.

Rather than revisiting a familiar icon of Art Deco, the exhibition expanded the story surrounding the ship. Alongside celebrated views of the crossing, it revealed rarely seen photographs of the construction in Saint-Nazaire, the preparations before departure and the arrival in New York, offering a broader understanding of Roger Schall's assignment. Together, these images revealed the remarkable depth of a photographic corpus that documents not only an ocean liner, but also a defining moment in the history of French design, industry and maritime innovation.

As the Estate's first exhibition devoted to a single historical commission, Revoir Normandie marked a new stage in the interpretation of Roger Schall's work. It demonstrated how a coherent body of photographs can be re-examined through contemporary historical research, creating a dialogue between photography, maritime heritage and museum scholarship. The project also laid the foundations for the major institutional exhibition presented in Saint-Nazaire the following year, extending this research to the city where the Normandie was built.