©Pablo Picasso - Portrait of Sylvette David 1954
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Portrait of Sylvette David 1954
130x97cm oil/canvas
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Sotheby's :
19-year-old Sylvette David was Picasso's neighbor in Vallauris who had caught his eye from afar during the spring of 1954. When she arrived at his house one afternoon with some of her friends, he allegedly exclaimed "it's you!" and began a series of nearly forty paintings and drawings and four sculptures, including the present work, that would occupy him for over two months. Picasso met Sylvette at a critical period in his personal life, just when his relationship with Françoise Gilot was coming to an end. Sylvette's boyfriend was a constant presence when she posed at the artist's studio between April and June, and the fact that she was unattainable perhaps fueled Picasso's obsession with her. With his tireless reconfiguring of her face in various media, he transformed this young woman's personal style into the identity of a generation. In 1968, he would return to the image of Sylvette to create a monumental public sculpture that was installed in a plaza on the New York University campus in Manhattan