Influenced by her mother, a painting teacher, Anita Malfatti developed an interest in art early in her life. She took her first study trip when she was 20 years old. In Germany, she witnessed the expressionist vanguard. Early in her trip, in 1910, she painted this work “Bust of a woman”. It displayed her vivid originality that later would be both criticized and praised on the eve of the Modern Art Week of 1922, which solidified her place as the forerunner of the Brazilian modernist movement.