A qualified doctor, José Parada devoted his career to costumbrista painting and to his professorship in anatomy at the School of San Fernando. He was the author of numerous writings on art, foremost among them being this collection of biographies of Spanish women painters. Although he betrays the influence of the German neurologist P.J. Moebius and his ideas on the incapacity of women for genius, Parada’s text nevertheless contributed to the progressive rise in the social consideration of Spanish women artists.