María Luisa de la Riva went to live in Paris in the late 1880s, attracted by the possibilities for training and the larger number of women artists in the French capital. From there she continued to send her canvases to the National Exhibitions in Madrid. One of them was this still life, where she displays great virtuosity in rendering the textures of a large variety of fruit and flowers. Glimpsed in the background is a Chinese vase with chinoiserie scenes that may include a covert self-portrait of the artist, a gesture in emulation of the Flemish painter Clara Peeters.

G. Navarro, Carlos, Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.334 nº 95