A traditional and established form of painting, examples of still life are found in all cultures, time-periods and mediums, spanning the length of history. One of the original categories of "traditional" painting, alongside portraiture and landscape, still life works usually consist of an arrangement of fruits, flowers, banquet pieces, and animals. As painting developed around the world, the importance of formal still life rose not only as an art form, but also as a commodity. Decorative motifs and commissioned works allowed those with money to capture their surroundings in the pre-photographic world. The sixteenth century brought a rise in still life painting, particularly among the artists of the Northern Renaissance, who were inspired by the vanities paintings of the Protestant Reformation art.

In the twentieth century, portraiture was further explored through the lens of various artistic movements and styles, from Henri Matisse's Still Life with Geraniums (1910) to Pablo Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning (1912). In the southwest, painter Georgia O’Keeffe created highly symbolic arrangements of flowers and skulls, while Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's 1972 painting, Still Like with Goldfish Bowl experimented with bold, comic-inspired lines. While the nature of the still life genre has changed throughout history, the fundamental desire of human beings to recreate their surroundings has remained.