Cundell studied at the Slade under Tonks and at the Westminster School of Art under Sickert. She was an independent and adventurous woman, who travelled across America by car, driving 3,000 miles in a week. In the 1920s, from her address in London, she showed at the Royal Academy a series of paintings of working women: The Cook, The Needlewoman and The Laundress. She exhibited as ‘NLM Cundell’, tricking critics into referring to her as ‘Mr’. The woman in this painting is a figure of authority, sitting in her kitchen, issuing instructions and prominently displaying her wedding ring. Cundell held her first one-woman exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1925, which was reviewed by The Times: ‘There is no showing-off … only fine, simple flowing composition, and very careful but very sure detail. The subjects are not smart pretty ladies, but mostly working women; there is no “best-clothes” display about the exhibition. But there is life and truth, and the beauty of them.’