About us
A dream come true ...I have always been attracted to Asian Arts, in particular classical Chinese paintings. After visiting museums and private collections featuring Chinese paintings in Europe, I decided to draw my inspiration from the very origin of this art, China. I took my first trip to Beijing in 1998 eager to discover the heirs of ink painting.
I took Christie's Education London Art Course and concentrated my studies on Chinese art. I realised that specialists and collectors had been focusing mainly on objects and ceramics whereas my interest was in paintings. I made the decision to discover by myself what was left of this art I liked so much. My visits to the Beijing and Shanghai Museums and especially Taipei's provided me with a beautiful retrospective. I had sharpened my eye, which meant I was now prepared to search for contemporary artists having inherited from the ancient ink techniques. After several trips to China and hundred of encounters, I selected the best artists. It was not an easy choice : classic Chinese art is still taught but few painters chooose this technique with a view to renewing it. Nevertheless, my passion for this unique pictorial language remained unabated. I pursued my search and met with success. After staging some exhibitions in Europe, I opened Galerie Encre de Chine in the heart of St Germain-des-prés in Paris from 2002 to 2006.
I now work in partnership with Galleries, Institutions and Museums still under the name of Encre de Chine.
I promote artists who use mainly traditional ink technique on paper. This is an aesthetic choice but also and above all the desire to value a thousand-year-old tradition, taught by ancient masters and which has survived with difficulty after the Cultural Revolution. This tradition is rooted in calligraphy, the core of Chinese culture.
Encre de Chine presents artists who all have an international reputation.
Roselyne Segalen