On 13 September 1982, her sudden death at the age of 52 marked the definitive moment that the legend of Grace Patricia Kelly was born, this brilliant Hollywood actress who became Princess of Monaco.
“Writing about her is like trying to wrap smoke in paper,” wrote a Saturday Evening Post reporter in 1954. When Grace Kelly was asked, “What do you think of the phrase ‘fairy tale’ that inevitably comes to mind when people talk about you? “she replied, with elegant exasperation: “Fairy tales tell imaginary stories; I am a living character. I am a living character. I exist. If my life as a real woman were ever told, they would finally discover the true being that I am. “ Actress, princess, performer in the broadest sense of the term, muse and creator, Grace Kelly’s career and work (evoked and analysed here in detail) attest to her immense creative talent as an authentic artist as much as to a “talent for life” because ultimately art is nothing more than the direct extension and desired outcome of life. Stéphane Loisy retraces the artistic career belonging to Grace Kelly, Hollywood star and Princess of Monaco, in a richly illustrated book that reveals the contours of a life that, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, “so aroused the imagination of her century that it created a myth and a legend around her”.
