Prince and Princess Achille Murat • Patrons

The Murats
Prince and Princess Achille Murat

Princess Achille Murat made a lecture tour of the United States in the fall of 1926.  As a leader of the Paris Social circles, the Princess had accepted an invitation of the San Francisco center of the League of Women Voters to speak in December 1926.  Prince and Princess Achille Murat stayed in San Francisco from Dec. 17th, 1926 to Jan. 4th, 1927.

Yun Gee was introduced to Princess Achille Murat through Mrs. Jehanne Bietry  Salinger, Editor of The Argus, and Yun Gee’s friend in San Francisco.  Princess Murat went to Yun Gee’s studio and was very impressed by the young artist.  The Murats encouraged Yun to pursue moving to Paris and continue his artistic ambitions.

Prince Murat was a descendant of Napoleon’s general and the Princess was a daughter of the Marquis de Chasseloup Laubat, who was a director of the great Creusot Armament Works. The Princess’s maiden name was Magdeleine de Chasseloup Laubat (1901-1945). The Prince Achille Murat was born in 1898, and passed away maybe in 1980. Achille and Magdeleine got married in 1924.

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545917239Princess Achille Murat

On the shores of the Pacific, in San Francisco, where the East and West meet, I became acquainted with Yun. The subtle talent of this young Chinese artist revealed itself between a pagoda and a gypsum sky.

He astonished and fascinated one by his bold coloring and the age-old dreams of his Asian soul, powerfully expressed by a very modern brush.

Paris will appreciate his imagination, his poet’s sensibility, his prodigious psychology and the stirring sincerity of his work.

~ Princesse Achille Murat

PrincessMuratPrincess Achille Murat

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Poem for Princess Murat’s Portrait
by Yun Gee

I haven’t seen beauty since very long.

Now I paint the Princess Murat in her Chinese Library

in her Chinese costume lying on her sofa.

Strange it is to me no voice, no colors like

flying. This makes me happily remember Known

and Look (two masters who live in Song Dynasty) poem:

She with the beauty of art in a western palace

Her costume with original colours, Chinese.

Since I came to Europe, keeping Chinese eyes is

difficult.

She the only one here that makes me remember

China…………….and now I can follow

the wind………now I can travel in Tong

in Sung

 

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