Marie-Thérèse Walter was the French mistress and model of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935, and the mother of his daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso.  Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he was 45 and still living with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova.  In Picasso’s paintings, Walter always appears as blonde, sunny and bright.  Picasso and Walter kept their relationship secret.  Walter lived close to Picasso’s family, who lived in an apartment provided by and next door to his art dealer and friend, Paul Rosenberg, in Rue La Boétie. From 1930, she stayed in a house opposite Picasso’s at Rue La Boétie 44.  Picasso supported Marie financially, but he never married Marie. On October, 20 1977, four years after Picasso’s death, Marie-Thérèse committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage at Juan-les-Pins, South of France.