Georgina belongs to a new generation of Chinese art historians whose perspective has been shaped by sustained engagement with both Chinese and European cultures. Having grown up in London, she brings a bicultural way of seeing to European art: one grounded in its historical and art-historical contexts, while remaining attentive to the aesthetic expectations of Chinese audiences. She completed both her BA and MA in History of Art at University College London (UCL).

At Hougai Tang Gallery, Georgina’s role is fundamentally research-led. Through art-historical research and analysis, she situates each work within its broader artistic, historical and cultural context. Drawing on archival sources, artist records, comparative works and provenance where available, she helps build a fuller understanding of a painting’s authorship, stylistic character, historical setting and place within an artist’s wider practice.

Her approach is deliberately complementary to that of the gallery’s founder. Where JP’s collecting has been shaped by intuition, connoisseurship and decades of sustained looking, Georgina brings the perspective of scholarship and trained visual analysis, with particular attention to attribution, visual language, cultural context and comparative research. Much of the research, writing, and commentary material accompanying the gallery’s works is developed and written by her. These texts are not intended to prescribe a single i nterpretation. Rather, they provide a reliable point of entry into the visual subtleties, historical resonances and ideas that a painting may gradually reveal through attentive looking.

It is this dialogue — between generations and cultures, scholarship and connoisseurship, research and intuition, and different ways of seeing — that helps shape the distinctive artistic identity of Hougai Tang Gallery.

Based in Shanghai, Sahra is Hougai Tang‘s bridge between Europe and China. She ensures that a collection assembled across Europe finds its place and audience in the Chinese market, working closely with the team to bring each work from Europe’s studios and galleries to collectors in China. Her role spans much of the project‘s practical life on the ground: coordinating between European and Chinese contributors, supporting the presentation and accessibility of the collection, and helping to turn an ambitious cross-cultural vision into a working reality.

As Collection Steward, Frédéric oversees the evaluation and preparation of each artwork before it enters the collection, ensuring that every painting is presented with respect for its history, character, and originality. When Jean-Pierre founded the gallery, Frédéric was among the first he turned to — a trusted friend and connoisseur whose eye he had long valued — and he embraced the chance to help shape the collection from the outset. He is, in effect, the gallery's first eye, the judgment each work must pass before it earns its place. Frédéric lives in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, in the heart of Provence, a town famed for its antique markets and its community of artists, dealers, and craftsmen. Over the years, he has built deep relationships within that world, including with the conservators who now care for the Hougai Tang collection, connecting the gallery to some of the region’s finest restoration expertise.

Armelle is a State-accredited conservator and restorer specialising in easel paintings from the 15th to the early 20th century. After five years of study at the École des Beaux-Arts d’Avignon, she earned her State Diploma in the Conservation and Restoration of Painted Works in 1999, recognised by French heritage institutions. 

For more than two decades, Armelle has led ARCAD and worked closely with public collections across France. Her conservation projects have included works held by the Basilica of Saint-Trophime in Arles, the Inguimbertine Museum in Carpentras, and the Musée Grobet-Labadié in Marseille. Her approach is guided by a fundamental principle of conservation: any intervention should respect the material, technique and historical integrity of the work, and wherever possible remain reversible. Restoration, in this sense, is not about making a painting appear “new”, but about stabilising and preserving it while leaving future study and treatment open.

At Hougai Tang Gallery, Armelle advises on the condition, conservation, restoration and presentation of selected works. Drawing on more than twenty years of institutional experience, she brings a rigorous and measured conservation approach to the care of the gallery’s collection.

Learn more about Armelle Demongeot and ARCAD:

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Chantal Bonnassieux has spent her career working in the conservation and restoration of European painting, and is currently among the conservation professionals involved in the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before specialising in the restoration of easel paintings, later undertaking further training at the École du Louvre in art history and conservation techniques. Her work spans paintings from the Renaissance to the contemporary period, and restoration remained at the centre of her professional practice in Paris for more than fifteen years.

At Hougai Tang Gallery, Chantal advises on the condition, preservation, restoration and presentation of selected works. Her assessment extends beyond the immediate appearance of a painting to the material history carried by its surface: the support and paint layers, natural ageing, traces of previous intervention, and the conditions in which the work has been kept.

For collectors approaching the European secondary market, this perspective offers an important additional way of understanding a work. Alongside questions of authorship, subject and provenance, Chantal helps establish how a painting has survived, how it has been treated, and what its present condition can reveal about its history.

Learn more about Chantal Bonnassieux and Atelier Marina:

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Every painting that leaves Hougai Tang for China passes through Anne’s hands.

At her workshop, Atelier Rehausse in Le Thor, Provence, Anne provides Hougai Tang with a bespoke framing service. Once a work has been cleaned, conserved and, where necessary, restored, she selects and adapts a frame in response to its period, palette, proportions and style. This is often the final stage in the preparation of a work before it begins its journey to a collector in China.

Anne and her team specialise in bespoke framing. Their approach treats framing not simply as a decorative addition, but as part of the way a work is presented, protected and understood. Each project begins with careful consideration of the object itself, bringing together the work, its materials and the trained eye to arrive at a solution that feels both appropriate and considered. For Hougai Tang, this final stage is an important part of preparing a work for its next chapter: ensuring that, after restoration and conservation, it is presented in a way that respects both its history and its individual character.