Painter, printer and illustrator Ruth Collet (née Salaman) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, with Stanley William Hayter Atelier 17 in Paris, and at the private art school of New Zealand-born Kathleen Browne and her Polish émigré husband Marian Kratochwil. Salaman was associated with the East London Group and also exhibited with the London Group, the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Society of Women Artists, as well as extensively with the WIAC including on the executive and selection committee in 1958. She also exhibited at Ben Uri Gallery with fellow WIAC exhibitors Adele Reifenberg (1950) and Lottie Reizenstein (1970). Pear Tree after Picking is typical of her bold, painterly style.