Thursday, March 29, 2007

Tony Duquette and Dawnridge






I just received my April issue of Harper's Bazaar yesterday, and all I can say is "Wow"! The cover is, in my opinion, one of the best fashion magazine covers that I have seen in a long time. I was so taken with the exotic setting in which Reese Witherspoon was photographed, and I realized upon closer inspection that the location was Tony Duquette's home "Dawnridge", located in Los Angeles.

Duquette, who died in 1999, was a true design Renaissance man. He was, during the course of his life, a set designer, interior decorator, artist, jewelry designer, and costume designer. Duquette got his start in Los Angeles during the 1930s, where he was fortunate enough to meet Elsie de Wolfe. de Wolfe would act as a mentor to Duquette, and she introduced him to all of the right people. Eventually, Duquette's client list grew to include J. Paul Getty and Elizabeth Arden.

In the late 1940s, Duquette and his wife built their home "Dawnridge". Duquette's love of the exotic and the eccentric is certainly evidenced by the interior decoration of the home. To me, the house is rather like an Orientalist fantasy mixed with a liberal sprinkling of the baroque. The house is now owned by Hutton Wilkinson, Duquette's business partner of many years. The drawing room, featured on the cover of Bazaar, was redecorated by Wilkinson in 2000 and is in the spirit of Duquette. The pictures below, however, were taken in the 1980s and show the house as Duquette had decorated it. If you would like to learn more about Duquette, you should visit his website (Wilkinson still runs the Duquette business) and view the wonderful photos of his work.









(Photos at top courtesy of Harper's Bazaar; photos at bottom courtesy of Tony Duquette)

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:25 AM

    That Harper's Bazaar cover is for subscribers only. On the newsstand, it's the normal headshot cover. interesting.

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  2. Style411- you're right! I just went to their website. I like the subscriber cover better!

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  3. This is such an amzing cover. And the Duquette site is packed with so many great archived images -- I reference it often :)

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  4. Style Court- That site is certainly comprehensive! I could get lost in it.

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  5. Beautiful!

    Off topic but do you remember Denning & Fourcade? They are both deceased now but I met
    Denning on several occasions a couple years before he died when he was trying to do a book on their designs. No one was interested at that time and I felt so sad for him.

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  6. Alyssa- I do remember reading about them, but I'm not really familiar with their work. Didn't Denning die a few years ago (I think I read his obit in the NYT). That is sad b/c they were quite big in their day, no?

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  7. Oh my goodness, Reese looks just stunning!

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  8. I love that you posted this! When I first saw these in the magazine and saw the one of her on the sofa in the yellow dress I immediately thought of the Flaming June painting by Frederick Leighton.

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  9. Mackenna- Great comparison!

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  10. Did you know that there will be a big beautiful book on Tony's work published by Abrams by the end of the year?

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  11. Annie- No, I did not know this, but this is very exciting news!!! Thanks for letting us all know!!!

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  12. There is also a book by Tim Street Porter coming out at the end of the year that shows Tony's work too. I think it's amazing...controlled chaos.

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  13. POC, thanks again for posting these images. The sumptuous colors gave me the push to go ahead and buy the red chandelier -- not that I'm striving for the full-on Duquette look :) And now I'll buy this issue.

    Also, I'm thankful for all the newsy comments above.

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  14. Anonymous11:20 AM

    Oh my gosh, I received my Bazaar last week and I kept scouring to read more about the setting (couldn't find ANYTHING!). Thank you so much for filling in the blanks!

    Becky

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  15. Becky, I know- isn't the setting great?? The website is also quite comprehensive!

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