While living on the southern coast of France in early 1954, Picasso encountered 19-year-old Sylvette David. Her stunning features fascinated Picasso so much that over the course of the next three months, he created over forty paintings, drawings and sculptures of her in a range of styles. Her long, fair hair, tied back in a ‘horse’s tail’ was a dominant feature in many of the works.  And this provided the inspiration behind a 1950s ponytail craze. Brigitte Bardot adopted the same hairstyle, apparently after seeing the coverage of David in Paris Match and elsewhere.

David (French, b. 1934) is now herself and artist.   src1