The last living model for "Girl with Apples" visited the Petko Zadgorski City Art Gallery in Burgas today. As a child, she posed for Vladimir Dimitrov, known as the Master. She has now seen her portrait again 83 years after it was painted, the gallery said.
"Girl with Apples" is the leading work in the gallery's collection.
Dimitrov painted it in 1943 in Shishkovtsi, the girl's home village. She was 8 and in first grade. The sittings took place every morning from 1 to 5 October.
The visitor told gallery staff about her meetings with the Master and how the painting was made. She said school let her skip the first lesson of the day so the artist could paint in clean, natural morning sunlight. The gallery said he used no white paint for the light tones, only the white of the canvas and the sunlight.
She turned 90 this year. She had her photo taken with the gallery staff as a keepsake and posed with apples once again.