GISÈLE d'AILLY van WATERSCHOOT van der GRACHT
Gisèle d'Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht was an absolute treasure. Within her 101 years of life Gisèle emitted a gravitational phenomena that could not be denied. A pull both infectious and deeply touching. There was an illustrious energy and radiance that steamed from Gisèle's own being that lends itself to the light, life and color that flow in plenty throughout her story, spaces and works of art. Her remarkable story is woven together with exuberance and benevolence by a life lived in full. From her time in the US as a child, to providing sanctuary to Jewish Germans in WWll, later painting and restoring an abandoned monastery in the Greek Isle of Paros where she swam in the sea daily, immersed in the arts throughout. Finally returning to the sanctuary she had once created to live out her journey, this pictured canal house in Amsterdam, which she layered with her works and mementos.
A treasure... Yes, so very much undeniable.
WORDS | Sanam Miremadi [ ChloeTouran ]
ARTIST | Gisèle d'Ail van Waterschoot van der Gracht 1912-2013
IMAGES | Jordi Huisman for Freunde von Freunden