Inspired by the high relief executed, at the request of the architect Lefuel, for the Pavillon de Flore, in the Palais du Louvre, which had as its theme ‘The Triumph of Flora’, Carpeaux later made a single figure, which he called ‘Spring’.

Modifying the attitude and the movement of his previous creation, the new Flora, is crouching, adorning her hair with flowers, her lips twitching in a smile that immediately enchanted the public. The face and smile are those of Anne Foucart, the daughter of Carpeaux’s great friend, Jean-Baptiste Foucart.

This human-scale version was executed in 1873, when Carpeaux was living in London, where he had taken refuge after the fall of the Second Empire. It was commissioned by a great lover of art, by the name of Turner. Carpeaux also did portrait busts of Mr and Mrs Turner at the same period.