Velázquez was born in 1599 in Seville in southern Spain, an important city with a thriving artistic community. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco, Seville's most significant artist and art theorist, and he was later to marry his master's daughter.

During his early years in Seville, Velázquez produced traditional religious works such as 'The Immaculate Conception' and 'Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos'.

He also began to produce 'bodegones', or 'tavern scenes'. These paintings of everyday life, set in humble surroundings, were among the first of their kind in Spain. They give their subjects - be they a man selling water on the street, or an old woman cooking eggs - a dignity and gravitas.

Each object, and each texture in the paintings is evoked with care: the whites of the eggs, just starting to cook in the oil; the contrast between the glazed and unglazed parts of the jug; the cool brass of the mortar and pestle and the shiny red skin of the onion.

While each object is a beautiful study in itself, the fact that they were each painted individually, and from slightly different perspectives, gives the work a slightly disjointed quality.

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