The Return of the Old Friend, original tempera maritime painting on wood panel, 70 × 100 cm. A shipyard in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Normandy, and a family history linked to Greenland. Painted in tempera on wood panel, this work was born from an unexpected encounter with a place steeped in personal history. In Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, the cutter Vieux Copain , on which my grandfather had sailed to Greenland in the 1970s, reappeared during a walk. On the left of the painting, its silhouette stands among the boats of the shipyard, in the night light.

Main Description: An Unexpected Encounter. We were strolling around Cherbourg when someone suggested we make a detour to Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. Little did we know that this visit would take me back several decades.

At the Bernard shipyard, among the boats awaiting restoration, was Vieux Copain, the cutter on which my grandfather had made two trips to Greenland in the 1970s. I knew his name through family history; finding him like this, immobilized in dry dock, suddenly gave a concrete presence to this past.

The boat appears on the left in the painting. Around it, the hulls are lined up in the nocturnal light of the shipyard. They seem to share the same expectation, side by side, each with its own history and years of sailing.

The title, The Return of the Old Friend, plays on the name of the cutter and the familiar expression used to describe a long-time friend. It also evokes the unexpected return of a memory, brought about not by a deliberate search, but by an unforeseen stopover.

Painting from life sometimes holds this kind of surprise. You come to observe a place, its shapes, its light; and something unexpected appears. Here, the seascape has become intertwined with my family history. The painting preserves the trace of this encounter, between the very real boats in the shipyard and a memory that, for the duration of a walk, has found its place in the present.

About the place

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, in the Manche department, has a long maritime history. It is at the Bernard shipyard that Vieux Copain , a cutter listed as a historical monument, is located, having been in dry dock since 2012 awaiting restoration. The boat is linked to the history of deep-sea navigation and, more personally, to that of my family.

Measuring 70 × 100 cm, "The Return of the Old Friend" gives prominence to the boats gathered in the shipyard and the nocturnal atmosphere that envelops them. The work combines a seascape observed on location with a unique family story. It will appeal to lovers of maritime painting as well as those who appreciate antique boats, the memory of navigation, and the stories that certain places evoke. This original work is intended for those seeking a contemporary, sensitive, and timeless maritime painting that transcends the mere representation of a landscape. Shipping: The artwork is shipped from Paris, mounted on a stretcher frame and carefully protected in a suitable cardboard box.