Hougai Gallery was born from a life lived at the intersection of commerce and culture. Founded by Jean-Pierre Roquet, former CEO and board member of Elee China Logistics, the gallery is at once a personal passion and a cultural legacy, the record of one man's lifelong dialogue with European art.

Having spent much of his life between Europe and Asia, JP developed a deep appreciation for the artistic heritage of both worlds. Art accompanied him quietly throughout his business career, and upon retirement, that abiding interest flourished into a devoted pursuit. For decades, he travelled across Europe with the same rigour he once applied to logistics, seeking out 19th-century works that reflect the daily life, landscapes, and social history of past generations.

JP selects each painting personally, for its aesthetic quality, its emotional pull, and the story it tells, supported by a trusted network of advisors and restorers. The result is a collection distinguished not by market fashion but by provenance, coherence, and genuine feeling. At Hougai Tang, the question is never whether you understand a painting, but whether it moves you. If it fails to touch your sensibilities, you are perfectly entitled to your indifference. Works that cease to stir genuine emotion naturally recede into history's margins. At Hougai Tang Gallery, we believe the true measure of art lies in its ability to awaken your aesthetic sensibility. Through JP’s carefully assembled collection, we invite you to embark on your own personal journey of artistic discovery, one guided not by prescribed interpretation, but by individual connection to the enduring power of European painting. Every encounter you have with these works becomes part of your own story with art.

The 19th century marks a turning point in Western art. For centuries before it, painting had largely served the Church, the nobility, and the state. The Impressionists changed that — turning attention toward personal experience, ordinary life, and the fleeting quality of light. The works presented here sit within that shift: from art made in service of collective power, to art that speaks in a more private register, directly to the person standing in front of it.

At the heart of the project lies the meeting of two individuals: the experience, intuition, and personal vision of a lifelong collector complemented by the curiosity, academic rigor, and fresh outlook of a young Chinese art historian educated in London and immersed in some of Europe's most respected artistic and cultural institutions. It is this dialogue between generations, cultures, and ways of seeing that gives Hougai Tang much of its distinctive character. Supported in France by specialists in conservation, restoration, research, and collector relations, the team shares a common objective: preserving and presenting European artistic heritage in a way that is accessible, meaningful, and relevant to a new generation of collectors in China.