María Luisa de la Riva enjoyed solid success as a still life painter not only in Spain but also in Paris, where she spent much of her professional career. Besides developing a characteristic way of representing fruit in her mature period, the painter had an ability to make her still lifes unusually expressive. The works painted in Paris, like this one, contain clear references to “Spanishness”, and it was with them that she won her most important prizes.

G. Navarro, Carlos, Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.337 nº 97