Rosa Rolanda (Azusa, California, United States, 1895 – Mexico City, 1970) was born Rose Cowan. Her mother, Guadalupe Ruelas, had Mexican ancestry, while her father was an American engineer. From a young age, Rosa excelled in physical education, which led her to study dance. In 1916, she was selected to join the Marion Morgan Dancers group in New York. Later, she participated in the Music Box Revue, a show directed by Irving Berlin that combined music, dance, and design. 

In 1923, she met the painter Adolfo Best Maugard, who introduced her to Miguel Covarrubias, a caricaturist with whom she began a close relationship in 1926. During these years, she became acquainted with artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who encouraged her to pursue painting. In the late 1930s, already married to Covarrubias, Rosa began painting portraits of friends, children, and indigenous women, primarily in gouache, though she also experimented with oil. Her first portrait of actress Dolores del Río was painted in 1938, and she later painted a portrait of María Félix. She considered herself a neo-figurative painter, carving her own path in the art world and leaving an important legacy in the history of Mexican art.