Françoise Gilot: ‘It Girl’ at 100

The painter, writer and onetime Picasso muse has a few things to say about success, personal style and the nature of intimacy.

Seated bolt upright on a cream-colored sofa, Françoise Gilot was as grave as an oracle, an impression enhanced by her precision-tailored flame red suit.

“I wear red as a kind of protection, an affirmation of character,” she said. “It allows me to show myself the way I want to be seen.”

It was her expression — a blend of mischief, vulnerability and tentative warmth — that gave her away. “I am shy,” Ms. Gilot said more than once during a rare interview late last month on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in the apartment that is also her studio.