Zhu Yuanzhi (Yun Gee) 1906-1963

Yun Gee's wife Helen Gee (1919-2004)
Sotheby's Taipei,  Helen's World of Yun Gee, October 17, 1999. Lot 23

Paule de Reuss (1904-1961), French aristocrat of German origin, poet. She and Yun Gee met in Paris in 1927, when twenty-four-year-old Yun Gee, after moving from San Francisco to Paris to pursue his career, had just made himself well received with paintings exhibited in leading galleries and a solo show at the prestigious Gelerie Bernheim-Jeune. Needless to say how intricate the relationship could be back to eighty year ago, the enormous social gap between the two shadowed the romance with great agony and anguish, the two young lovers got married in 1930 even though Paule de Reuss was disowned by her family. Unfortunately, the 1929 stock market breakdown forced Yun Gee to return to the States for a living, he intended to send for his wife as soon as he established himself in New York. The Depression destroyed the expectation and terminated the marriage in 1932. The two remained friends till she committed suicide in 1961.

Paule de Reuss was, in the uprising period of Yun Gee's career, not only a companion, but also the source of inspiration and the drive of creativity. It is not surprising to find through the lover's eyes, a loved and beloved, peaceful, contented, and happy young woman emerged vividly in the simple accurate strokes along with its warm and mild colors.

The inscriptions addressing his beloved one's name in Chinese added a particularly unique touch to the painting, and in the meantime, revealed Yun Gee, who left his birthplace in Guangdong Province, China at the age of fifteen, yet still and always possesses a great passion and understanding for Chinese culture.