Roger Chapelet (1903-1995) The Regatta

Originally from Périgord, he discovered the maritime world when he boarded the Rollon in 1927, where his brother was a radio operator, in the port of Marseille. This was the start of his career as a maritime painter. He went on to produce a whole series of paintings in various ports: Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam. He embarked for the first time in 1929 to discover new horizons, and then went on board sailing ships to paint fishing campaigns on the banks of Newfoundland and in Greenland. In the 1930s, he became the poster artist for France's leading shipping companies, and in 1936 was appointed painter to the French Navy and made a member of the Académie de Marine. In 1934, he created fourteen dioramas of Newfoundland fishing for the former schooner, the Santa Maria, now the floating museum of the Grande Pêche^[3]. During the Second World War, he served between 1939 and 1940 on transatlantic convoys, then between 1942 and 1945 as a naval commissioner in the Mediterranean, then in Indochina in 1946, while continuing to paint various theaters of operation and naval battles. Returning to civilian life after the war, he was the poster artist for several liner companies: Compagnie de navigation mixte, Paquet, Transatlantique, Fraissinet, etc.

Along with Marin-Marie and Albert Brenet, he is considered one of the three great French marine painters of the XX^e century. An exhibition is dedicated to him at the Musée national de la Marine from October 8, 1993 to December 5, 1994.