Sylvette is a large concrete sculpture created by Pablo Picasso and the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, which was erected in the city of Rotterdam in 1970. It is located on the corner of Westersingel next to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The sculpture portrays a young woman with a ponytail. The model for the sculpture was Sylvette David, whom Picasso met in 1953 when she was 19. The sculpture was produced following the creation of a series of artworks, known as the Sylvette series, that Picasso made of his muse in a variety of artistic styles. Background Sylvette David was the daughter of a Parisian art dealer who, during the summer of 1953, met 73-year-old Picasso at his pottery studio located on Rue du Fournas in Vallauris. Finding her appearance appealing, Picasso asked her to be his model and subsequently created 60 works inspired by her over the course of two months (between April and June), including drawings, paintings and small metal sculptures. This was the most concentrated series of works that Picasso produced of a model in his lifetime. Life magazine described this era as Picasso's "Ponytail Period". Sylvette possessed the classic features that Picasso admired with blonde hair tied in a high ponytail. Within this series of artworks, Picasso depicted his model in numerous styles, including both naturalistic and cubist images. In 1957, Picasso met Carl Nesjar and was impressed with a process that he had invented for producing large concrete sculptures. They began to collaborate on producing a series of artworks, which began with Nesjar transferring Picasso's designs onto three murals on a government building in Oslo. The managing director of the Bijenkorf department store, Van der Wal, who was a member of the Urban Embellishment Committee, was impressed and wanted to install a similar artwork in Rotterdam. Initially, the committee proposed the installation of a 12 metre high sculpture by Picasso in Kralingse Hout, a greenbelt area northeast of Rotterdam, but it was withdrawn due to negative public opinion. Another artwork proposed by Picasso was again rejected in 1967, three years before the current sculpture was erected in 1970. Description The Sylvette sculpture in Rotterdam is a larger version of several small sculptures that Picasso created using painted sheet metal. It measures nearly 25 ft in height and was erected in May 1970. The sculpture was originally located in front of the Building Centre in Rotterdam,