Originally from California, Doris Rosenthal studied at the Los Angeles State Teachers College, the New York Art Students League, and Columbia University. She also spent time in Europe before establishing herself as an art teacher, first at the Columbia Teachers’ College and then at the James Monroe High School in the Bronx. In 1931 and again in 1936 she was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships to visit Mexico. During her travels, she created works that cemented her reputation as an artist of Mexican subject matter. In subsequent visits, Rosenthal became increasingly interested in traveling to remote areas of Mexico to sketch indigenous (Indian and mestizo) peasant culture. By the time of her death, Rosenthal had made Oaxaca, Mexico her home. The Baltimore Museum of Art hosted several traveling exhibitions of Mexican Art in 1928, 1935, 1940, 1942, and 1943–1944, so it is not surprising that Rosenthal became acquainted with several individuals associated with the Museum. (Rosenthal even had a solo show of her own work at the BMA in 1948.) More than 10 of her prints and drawings were collected by and ultimately given to the Museum by donors Blanche Adler and the Cone Sisters.