Still life with vegetables wasone of Cossington Smith’s last paintings undertaken while she was still attending art classes with Dattilo Rubbo. It was taken into her art teacher’s atelier to be judged with other works by the senior artist George Lambert. Although Lambert was supportive of young artists, including Cossington Smith, he decided against awarding this work the prize because of what he described as the ‘Bolshevik diagonals’ in the composition.