05 January 2012

Audrey Hepburn's La Paisible

.
 Pure & Simple-
 Peaceful-that's what Audrey was looking for and found in La Paisible.


 I searched for what was loved & found to be real- Audrey Hepburn

Hepburn photographed with her son Luca Dotti

Audrey Hepburn met and fell in love with Andrea Dotti in 1969. She had established a home near Lac Leman Switzerland with first husband Mel Ferrer in 1963.  The Swiss villa in Tolochenaz was a retreat for the Hollywood couple.
Hepburn said "it was a place where there would never be a war."

The simplest white wicker filled the Master Bedroom & fresh sprig blue Porthault linens covered the bed. The painting over the desk of the villa in the bedroom was painted by Dr. Dotti-an Italian psychiatrist.




HEPBURN
BEAUTIFUL IN BLUE


image from Gardens of the World here













Audrey's Library  at La Paisible took its colors from the painting of watermelon slices by Rufino Tamayo over a pink sofa.  A modern Parsons table and desk are paired with a Spanish rug in pinks , woven stools and a Windsor chair.





Audrey-later in life- relaxing in the Library of her beloved villa with her dogs.

image from Audrey Hepburn here




HEPBURN
PRETTY IN PINK


photograph by Bert Stern, 1960.



I remember the freedom being able to pick fruit from a tree (as a child)- Audrey Hepburn
pictured below harvesting fruit in her orchard





HEPBURN
RAVISHING IN RED

photograph by Avedon, 1961






In the Villa's Garden-roses & lavender, with a tablecloth scattered in daises. The orchard and established rose garden yielded to masses of wildflowers beyond.




I've always had a passion for the outdoors, for trees, for birds, for flowers.-Audrey Hepburn




The article and photographs were published in VOGUE UK 1971, and much of the text was written by Hepburn, She wrote:



The same year Henry Clarke photographed Audrey Hepburn wearing  her great friend Hubert Givenchy's newest collection for Vogue UK.










Though the relationship with Dotti did not last-they were married thirteen years, the house remained true to Audrey's ideals. Audrey Hepburn died at La Paisible  January 20th 1993. After her death Gregory Peck read this-her favorite poem, Unending Love.

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man's days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

~Rabindranath Tagore
 
 
 
Audrey Hepburn here 
Gardens of the World.org here 
in LIFE here
Life with Audrey, from the men in her life in People magazine 1994, here 
. 

15 comments:

  1. Gaye if ever there was a woman I truly loved! Audrey from her earliest years in film to the humanitarian giving in her later years!
    Thank you for featuring a lady ( always a lady) beautiful inside and out!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

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  2. One of my heroes. More for later in life than anything but loomed large in my life early on. Esp. since my favorite cousin was named after her character (Sabrina) & it went on from there. I'm lucky to know someone who worked with her as a child (in Two for the Road). I didn't want to be disappointed & I was not. At all.

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  3. Thank-you for sharing this. Love knows no limits.
    The colors and Audrey are splendid.
    pve

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  4. Gosh that blue hat is stunning, not something everyone could wear. the 3rd picture looks like The Long Walk at Hidcote Manor Garden

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  5. As I read the poem, it's as if I could hear Gregory Peck's voice. I didn't know that is where Audrey passed. As you know she did anything and everything with grace, passion, with love of life and humility. I wish I had met her if only just once.

    Beautiful post, thank you.

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  6. Gaye, thank you for a sublime AudreyHepburnfest.. you at your best!

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  7. Thank you for this article on Audrey Hepburn! She had the most incredible face. I have a lot of her Movies and She had such style and grace.

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  8. Growing up I desperately wanted to be Audrey Hepburn. There was so much more to her story than what initially meets to eye. Tears ran down my cheeks as I read the poem--beautiful. Thank you, Mary

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  9. I think AH is a woman we can all agree on for inspiring beauty and inspiration. Her own thoughts in the article are something to ponder for me. As I was always told-Pretty IS, as Pretty DOES. It applies. I TRUE beauty in every sense of the word. PGT

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  10. She has been a beacon for me, her beauty, loveliness and her devotion to humanity apart from her superb acting. Her style is legendary and I always strife to find my inner AH.....
    Thank you for this post!
    Happy New Year, Gaye!
    Victoria

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  11. Hepburn Heaven! I love it. Thank you, PGT. "We ARE all just grown-up children, really."

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  12. I adore this post, Audrey Hepburn and you...Happy New Year dearest friend!

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  13. Dilatory domiciler that I am with all good reading, I came to this pretty posting too late to remark on its love interest (if I may), the rambunctious piglet under her arm near the close and, need I say, the stunning dark blue roan English Cocker, presenting its nose. You must keep up this excellent work!

    By the way, in the fruit-picking portrait there is a striking resemblance to Valentina Cortese. Is this an old-hat comparison?

    Everyone I know grew up citing her as the pardonable exception to whatever clueless standard of adorableness we were pursuing at the time, until by process of elimination there really were no other, remaining.

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  14. She was a timeless beauty! What a lovely collection of images, and a touching poem. Thank you for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. She was indeed- Today's posting features Audrey too- be sure to take a look http://littleaugury.blogspot.com/2012/01/tea-valentino.html

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