María Luisa Puiggener Sánchez

María Luisa was born in Jerez, but her family is documented as being of Catalan origins. She is listed as the daughter of José Puiggener Bajes and María Sánchez Pastrana. Due to her family's socioeconomic status, María Luisa was able to access a sophisticated education to begin her career in art, where she earned significant renown despite the male-dominated field.

The main obstacle she faced was the opposition from art critics, who could not conceive that such talent could belong to a woman, despite her recognition. Neither her birth of death certificate document that she was married. The style and form of her works denote that she was a pupil of José Jiménez Aranda. Her subjects often reflected the social conditions she experienced: a politically and economically unstable society, which led to the rise of a new social group, beggars. Her work clearly documents the everyday life of the people she depicted; a practice known as social naturalism. Additionally, she also worked in other genres such as portraits, genre scenes, still life, and landscapes.