TY - JOUR T1 - Lydia Delectorskaya JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 626 LP - 627 DO - 10.3399/bjgp10X515250 VL - 60 IS - 577 AU - Graham Watt Y1 - 2010/08/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/60/577/626.abstract N2 - Behind The Pink Nude (1935) by Henri Matisse, there is the story of an extraordinary life, not of Matisse, but of his model, muse, friend, personal assistant and eventual carer, Lydia Delectorskaya.She should have been a doctor, like her father, a respected paediatrician in Tomsk in Siberia, but he died of typhus and her mother of cholera in 1922, leaving her an orphan at 12. Brought up by her aunt, and leaving Russia to escape the revolution, she was accepted for medical studies at the Sorbonne, but could not afford the fees.She married young, but the marriage lasted only a year and she moved to be part of the Russian émigré community in the south of France, trading on her looks as a film extra, dancer, and model. Delectorskaya had no money. After 6 months of helping Matisse with his huge mural The Dance, she was given 500 francs by Matisse to make a new start, but her partner blew the lot in one night at the Casino, and left. When Matisse found out she was taking part in dance marathons to repay the … ER -