Title: Sylvette
Medium: Round cupel, March 31st 1955, red earthenware clay, Black enamel underside, with the Madoura “Plein Feu stamp and “Impreinte originale de Picasso” stamp
References: Alan Ramie “Picasso: Catalogue of the edited ceramic works 1947/1971 (Catalogue Raisonee) reference number 267, page 265
George Bloch - “Tome III, Catalogue de l’oeuvre grave ceramique, 1949 - 1971 - No 56
Size: Diameter 150 mms
Note: This was one of a series of ceramics which Picasso had made at this time consisting of small bowls. They were made in the fashion of Ancient Greek ceramics with black glazed bases.
Lydia Corbett, then known as Sylvette David, was just 19 years old when she met Picasso in the spring of 1954. The artist was so enchanted by her beauty — and her now famous high ponytail — that he went on to make some 60 portraits of her. Sylvette worked in the pottery studio near to Picasso in Valllauris in the summer of 1954. She was said to be the inspiration for actress Brigit Bardot and the Roger Vadim film “And God created Woman”. In 1998 Barron’s published “Picasso and the girl with the pony tale” by Laurence Anholt - a children’s book in which a shy teenager named Sylvette meets Picasso in Vallauris and becomes his model. The model married Rawdon Corbett, an art student she met in Paris when she was 28. She followed him to England with her young daughter Isabel, and the family moved to Devon. Corbett has lived there ever since and is still a successful artist today.
Manufactured by: Madoura Potteries, France
Edition: 100 copies produced
