In 1864 the architect Hector-Martin Lefuel, in charge of the renovation work at the Louvre, commissioned Carpeaux to decorate the south façade of the Pavillon de Flore. The success of the high-relief composition led the artist to later adapt and revisit the theme in isolation, following a commission in London in 1871 from the industrialist and art collector Henry James Turner.

Carpeaux reinterpreted the life-size figure of Flora in a direct reference to Classical Antiquity and to the depiction of the Crouching Aphrodite, whose Roman variant was extremely popular. The work, of exquisite naturalism, initially entitled Spring, Spring, Gentle Spring, was presented at the Royal Academy in 1873.

The artist found the live model for the sculpture in the smiling physiognomy of Anne Foucart, daughter of his friend Jean-Baptiste Foucart. Carpeaux had visited the family in Valenciennes in 1860, when Anne was 16. The naturalness and freshness of Flora’s expression is the fruit of this close acquaintance.