In Picasso’s ‘Sylvette’ series, the ‘girl with the ponytail’ is an enigmatic presence in more than 40 of the artist’s drawings, sculptures and paintings. For French artist, former model and Picasso’s only living muse, Sylvette David (now Lydia Corbett), the immortalisation marked a positive, fruitful and creative period.
‘It was like magic,’ says Corbett now of what it was like to work with Picasso. ‘Like a fairy tale because I was very shy and very simple, I never said a word. We would sit quietly, he would paint me as I looked over the hills of Vallauris. It was like contemplation, sitting still in the present moment. He would stop now and again for a break – his studio was an old pottery and he had an old barn with his Hispano Suiza car in it. He opened the door and sat inside. He asked me to join him and I wondered, shall I go in or not, and I did.
