Judith Leyster was not born to an artist family as her father was a brewer. As a Dutch artist, Leyster did not limit herself to still life painting. As with so many woman artists her work declined upon marriage. In 1633, she was a member of the Haarlem guild and had pupils within a few years. In 1636, she married a fellow painter and had three children. Moving to Amsterdam a year later, Leyster remained for nearly eleven years. Leyster died in 1660 at the age of fifty. Nearly unheard of until a work of Frans Hals was acquired at the Louvre and turned out to be Judith Leyster. The great Dutch artist Hals and Leyster at least knew one another as she witnessed the baptism of one of his children and it is said that she sued Hals for stealing away a pupil and won.

Leyster studied from two schools. One, the landscape and genre paintings which were typical of Haarlem at that time. The other, a result of the large Catholic population and the Caravaggio influence as artists of the period travelled to Italy. Thus religious and paintings with larger figures were seen in Haarlem. Early works represented interesting candlelight images with chiaroscuro effects. Leyster seemed fascinated by the fall of light. Leyster must have admired Hals brushwork as she is known to have successfully imitated it on occasion, and preferred a more controlled surface. Leyster is concerned with the fall of light and compositional refinement as well as interaction of people. Leyster's work often shows her subjects smiling and gesturing as almost an invitation to join or share that life.

Leyster's works after her marriage are nearly nonexistant and had changed to still life painting, perhaps to not compete with her husband. One clearly unique painting is The Proposition. While it was not uncommon for male painters to portray proposals to women, a work by a woman showing a woman clearly declining such an indecent proposal is unusual. It is quoted by Slive in his 1970-74 work that Leyster is "the most clever painter of her sex in seventeenth century Holland." Leyster's contributions to this Dutch period are welcoming.