Baya (Mahieddine), born Fatima Haddad, was a self taught artist who held her first exhibition in Paris at the age of 16. Her colourful work is celebrated for its folkloric depiction of women, birds, butterflies, musical instruments, and tales of childhood. Femme à la robe rose is representative of Baya’s vibrant and dynamic compositions. Orphaned at the age of five, Baya worked on her grandmother’s farm. In 1943, her small clay figurines and drawings caught the attention of Aime Maeght, who was visiting Algiers at the time and who then organised Baya’s first exhibition of watercolours in 1947 at his Paris gallery, the Maeght Gallery. In France, she was admired by the French Surrealist artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso and André Breton. Whether due to her family life or the Algerian War, she briefly stopped painting around 1955. By the late 1960s, however, Baya was painting again and exhibiting throughout France.