Six centuries of Chinese paintings

Six centuries of Chinese paintings, restored works

Restoration of a Chinese painting from the Henri Cernuschi Zhong Kui collection by Li Shizhuo (1690 (?) - 1770); ink and cinnabar on paper. © Cernuschi Museum / Roger -Viollet

The exhibition "Six Centuries of Chinese Paintings, Restored Works of the Cernuschi Museum" presents the greatest painters of imperial China, active in the Ming scholarly circles (1368-1644) or the Qing court (1644-1911). It also reflects the destiny of artists at the dawn of the twentieth century in a China recomposition, worked by modernity and shaken by historical changes. Among the Chinese painters tempted by the West, many people have chosen Paris as their training and creative space since the 1930s. The contacts made by the Cernuschi museum with contemporary Chinese artists since the 1940s have made it possible to build a unique collection in the West.

For the first time, the collection of Chinese paintings brought back from the East by Henri Cernuschi in 1873 will be exhibited. A restoration campaign of more than fifteen years has revived this collection which is a unique testimony to the eyes of the first European collectors of Chinese painting at the time of Japanism. These forgotten masterpieces surprise by the daring treatment of the brush whose historical investigation teaches us that it corresponds to the hand of powerful individualities, to the innovative vision. The work of the restorers and the analyzes of the scientists, while penetrating into the depths of the work, make it possible to reveal the hidden aspects, and to understand the creation of the interior.

A film dedicated to the rescue of a damaged painting will present to the general public, techniques of restoration and assembly of a Chinese painting in the form of a vertical roller.
Through the singular approach of a work, the spectator can concretely take the measure of the restoration works that make it possible for the work to return to its place in the history of art.

An international symposium jointly organized by the National Heritage Institute and the Cernuschi Museum will bring together the 19 and 20 March, conservators and curators on the theme: restoration and research on Chinese painting in Europe and China.

Press Release Six Centuries Exhibition of Chinese Paintings (PDF)
Chinese Painting Symposium Program: Restoration and Research in Europe and China (PDF)