Violet Trefusis (née Keppel)
(1894-1972), Writer; daughter of Alice KeppelSitter in 29 portraits
Violet Trefusis was a writer and a patron of the arts. She wrote nine novels (five in English, four in French), poems, articles on Travels and Art, essays, short-stories, plays and epigrams. In 1950 General Catroux awards her with Légion d’honneur as femme de lettres; In 1953 the president of Paris Council, presents her with the Medaille d’argent de la ville de Paris. In 1960 the President of the Italian Republic confers on Violet Trefusis the highest honor of Commendatore della Repubblica italiana “for her literary merits and her attachment shown towards Italy”. During the 50s and the 60s, she established a cosmopolitan cultural environment that made her Villa dell’Ombrellino in Florence (as well as her two houses in France) a benchmark for artists and intellectuals. In 1966 she promoted the twinning between Florence and Edinburgh. She died in Florence on 1st March 1972. In March 2019 the Library of Oblate in Florence gave the name of Violet Trefusis to one of its main reading-rooms.
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