The relationship between Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy was as enigmatic as their art. At the same parties during which he banged his head against those of other men, Tanguy assaulted Sage verbally and sometimes physically, pushing her and sometimes even threatening her with a knife. Sage, according to friends' accounts, made no response to her husband's aggression except to try to persuade him to go home. Friends also said that Tanguy did not like Sage's painting and felt jealous of the fame that came to her. However contentious or abusive their relationship was, Sage was devastated by Tanguy's death. "Yves was my only friend who understood everything," she wrote to Jehan Mayoux, an old friend of Tanguy's, about a month after Tanguy's fatal stroke.