From the 1980s to the late 1990s, Chu Teh-Chun traveled frequently between Europe and Asia, quietly influencing his works. In 1983, after having left China for nearly three decades, Chu returned to his motherland. Aside from engaging in artistic conversations, he took the time to the places he had yearned for since he was a child and a student, making his way to the city of Huangzhou, Shanxi’s Yungang Grottoes, the Dunhuang caves, Huangshan, Beijing, and Shanghai. And amid the famous landscapes of his travels, the mountains and the lakes, he became deeply inspired. Created in 1998, Demeure des songes embodies the traditional Chinese landscape aesthetics and shows how the artist feels relaxed and pleasant to be back in his motherland. The abstract landscape painted by Chu shows that he had attained a state of complete freedom and ease of expression in his creation.

Light has always been the core inspiration for Chu's oeuvre. Demeure des songes demonstrates the meticulous usage of colors in his late works done in the matured period. He diluted and mixed shades of sapphire, indigo, and sea blue. He swept freely his brush saturated with colors across the canvas. Layer upon layer, his free brushstrokes resemble the wondrous vigor of calligraphy brushwork, flowing quickly and naturally. In the lower-middle part of the canvas, resplendent colors of vermilion, gold, and jade green are huddled like hidden jewels, piercing the darkness as their mysterious luster glitters and leaps, luring the viewers to look deeper into the painting.

In the 1990s, Chu’s works were widely embraced by both the Eastern and Western art worlds. Renowned French art critic Pierre Cabanne compiled a volume of his artwork in 1993. French galleries Galerie Régis Dorval and Galerie Protée separately held solo exhibitions for the artist. In 1997, the French Foreign Ministry sponsored a “Far East” traveling exhibition, with debuts at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, establishing Chu’s prestige internationally. In 1997, Chu Teh-Chun was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the first French of Chinese origin to sit under the dome.Demeure des songes, completed in 1998, was one of the representative works from this period in the artist’s career.

1980至1990年代晚期，朱德群頻繁地來往歐洲與亞洲，此對他的創作產生了潛移默化的影響。1983年，於離開中國近30年後，他首次踏上故土，除了從事藝術交流，他亦抽空遊歷名山大川，並赴杭州、山西大同雲岡石窟、敦煌、西安石林、黃山、北京、上海等地。行旅之間帶給他許多靈感的啟發。誕生於1998年的《夢之鄉》，呈現傳統中國山水意境以及水墨的寫意韻味，流露藝術家重投故土山川之懷抱的泰然自若。畫面收放自如的灑脫筆觸，以及成熟圓滿的構圖，無聲地流露朱德群對闊別逾三十載的壯麗山河之讚頌。

光，一直是朱德群最重要的靈感泉源，貫穿他的藝術生涯。《夢之鄉》展現朱德群晚期創作熟練自若的用色。藝術家以寶藍、靛藍與海藍顏料稀釋調和，浸潤油彩的大筆在縱深、水平的空間中揮灑渲染。筆刷的重疊留下帶有書法筆力的曼妙形跡，如行雲流水般的暢快律動。筆勢起落轉承熟練，鏗鏘有力，遠觀猶見群山的雲煙，充滿東方山水風韻。在畫幅的中下方，璀璨的朱紅、晶黃、翠綠色塊，若埋藏於幽暗中的寶石，劃破黑暗，在躍動中綻放神秘的光芒。《夢之鄉》 不僅是藝術家的心況幻化於畫布的奇景，更是藝術家為觀者建構的如夢似幻的桃園夢境，引人入勝。

九〇年代，朱德群的作品廣為東西藝術世界所擁抱：1993年，法國重量級藝評家卡班（Pierre Cabanne）替他執筆編纂的個人畫集在巴黎問世；法國多爾瓦畫廊（Galerie Régis Dorval）、普洛特畫廊（Galerie Protée）分別替他舉辦個展；1997年，法國外交部更為他舉辦遠東巡迴展，先後在北京中國美術館、香港藝術館、台北市立美術館登場，確立了朱德群在東西藝術世界的威望。1997年，朱德群獲頒法蘭美術學院院士，成為第一位榮獲此頭銜的華人藝術家，《夢之鄉》即是創作於藝術家獲此殊榮的第二年，見證藝術家藝術成就的巔峰。