Picasso, Sylvette and Bardot

Picasso first asked the model, Sylvette David, to pose for him in 1954. 

  

Within a month, he had created a series of 40 paintings and drawings with her as the subject. 

  

(love the ponytail)

When word got out about Picasso's new “muse“, popular magazine Paris Match published an article with photographs of Sylvette David, which was read by French film director Roger Vadim and his first wife Brigitte Bardot. 

Picasso refused to paint Bardot, but Vadim was so impressed with Sylvette David's look that he had Bardot dye her brunette hair blonde and wear it in a high ponytail with espadrilles and matador pants, sparking the birth of a new fashion throughout Europe and the US. 

Brigitte Bardot watches Pablo Picasso at work in his studio in Vallauris during the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

 

I wonder why he refused to paint her.

          

If only I could know what was on his mind. Did Brigitte not inspire him? Was she too two-dimensional for him? She managed to inspire the rest of the world! What did he see in Sylvette that made him create a series of 40 paintings based on her? What makes a muse? So many questions. 

The mind of an artist. Most intriguing. :)

xoxoxo

{photos and info via the west, life, a man out of time, have some tea, paris match, podol}

Comments

[Maia]

Amazing post! Thanks for this bit of history. I did not know. I love that he refused to paint Bardot...I think because it reminds me of my dad's M.O.
My dad used to refuse to do commissions - even during the more difficult periods of his career. It was just on principle. He only did what he was inspired to do, from a very deep place in his artistic soul, and to do something dictated by a buyer was against his beliefs.
Of course, I don't know what Picasso's reasoning was, but what I imagine is that he wanted to paint someone who was what she was naturally, artlessly, and without contrivance. Bardot (though obviously she had that "something" innately) was willing to pose, dress up, dye her hair in order to achieve a certain look, and that made it a contrivance, not an innate thing. I can understand that.
I don't have my father's purity. I do commissions, and I enjoy doing commissions. But I understand the difference between someone who does glamour for show, and someone who just IS glamorous, without trying.

[jes]

i just have to tell you this story:

i was browsing in a museum's gift shop like 10 years ago and was flipping through the pages of a children's book written about Picasso and his muse (though I think they referred to her as a family friend in the story) and about how Picasso would paint her. I LOVED that picture of her in the ponytail and was desperate to find a repro poster of it to hang in my dorm room. Could not find it ANYWHERE! I looked and phoned museum shops all over the country...did countless searches on line and came up dry every time...I was beginning to think I made the whole thing up! Haven't seen that image since then. Until now. Thank you for confirming the fact that I'm not nuts.

[The Cottage Cheese]

Wow, fascinating story! I cannot believe that Bardot's "look" was actually inspired by someone else. So I suppose this means that Picasso was sort of indirectly responsible for "the" Brigette Bardot that we know and love.

[Susan]

I know why & will be posting on it soon. Basically, he really could not stand the artifice, the nonsense. That does not mean he disliked the attention of pretty young woman. He abhored their politics-non-politics (in the larger sense, not vote counting, etc.) as well. Oh here I am getting started already.

I don't know how I missed this since it's been a Picasso-Matisse-Francoise spring/early summer here. And remains.

xo to you Tina.

[Susan]

I just saw 'the Brigitte' we know & love. I hope people mean 'the look.' For I believe that beauty is as beauty does (I sound like my grandmother but I cannot help it.) BB is well-known in America for her animal-love & rights work. HOWEVER, she should also be known for her big-mouth support of right-wing hate politicians in France & Europe. It is truly distressing to me that so many ignore this most awful side of her. This is why I keep her to a minimum on my one blog (though there is a photo but in the context of working with Jeanne Moreau who is not hate filled, at all) & absolutely zero photos of BB on the blog dealing with human rights organizations & animal stuff...I would love to have used her photos & so on for the animal & pet stuff but it's just too icky for me. If you hear her in French on the radio, it sickens. People who like to ignore this say 'oh she really didn't say this or that...' Nah, I heard it with my own ears, read the interviews with my own French-reading eyes. It's beyond-tacky. But I enjoy these photos for their art history/pop history value.

xo to TTT

[Curious]

I recently aquired a what I believe is a charcoal sketch (or possible watercolor) of Sylvette. It appears to be the same as the sketch that is shown behind Picasso in the picture, but does not appear to be as large. It is bearing the note "Pour Sylvette" and has a Picasso signature in the upper left hand corner. It is mounted on black board with a fabric hanger on back. The back also contains a label "Pablo Picasso 1954 Til Sylvette To Sylvette x cm x cm Hersal Carey Walker New York". Does anyone have a good idea of exactly what this is (e.g. print, lithograph, etc.)?

[roes maclachlan]

where is Sylvette now ? i have the book of the story of the painting of girl with the pony tail she autographed in 2oo6

posted by rose april 8 2011

[selcuk]

I think he might have refused her not because of who she is but because he had already finished painting a very similar subject.