Tamayo painted two mural for Sanborns to decorate the building acquired by the company in 1954, located on the Calle José María Lafragua at the corner of Paseo de la Reforma in central Mexico City.
Still Life was intended to decorate the elegant restaurant room of the Sanborns chain, where the spectacular color contrasts of the mural could be enjoyed by diners.
When it was cleaned, the brilliance of the original colors led Tamayo himself to confirm: “Yes, those are my colors.”[3] The mural was painted on seven sheets of hardboard attached to the wall by means of a wooden frame.
In the foreground, the tops of the backs of two wrought-iron chairs can be seen, evoking the presence of the couple invited to enjoy the wine and fruit which, opulent and radiant, awaits the banquet.
The position of the table, the outside light source, and the singular semicircular shape of the work, intended to be seen from below by seated diners, were all conceived originally by Tamayo as part of the mural composition.
The time when Tamayo was producing the greater part of his work coincided with a series of important social and cultural changes in Mexico, often reflected in mural paintings.