She is well known for her bird-and-flower paintings executing the "boneless" technique, and became the most famed of the Yun family's female artists.
[2] She married Mao Hongtiao, also from Wujin, and the two sold paintings and wrote poetry to support their family.
[2] Yun is often compared with her contemporary Ma Quan, who similarly specialised in bird-and-flower painting but favoured strong outlines.
The Chuyue jiexu wenjian lu (初月接续闻见录), compiled in 1818, describes how people throughout the Jiangnan region described them as the "two without parallel" (Chinese: 两绝)[3] During his tenure as governor-general of Liangjiang, Yi Jishan presented some of Yun's works to Empress Dowager Chongqing who in turn showed them to the Qianlong Emperor.
The emperor was reportedly so impressed that he wrote a poem praising her art, after which Yun's reputation as a painter spread.