When the Dutch painter Cornelis van Spaendonck was around the age of twenty, he settled in Paris, which had become the new center of flower painting since the mid-18th century. As the artistic director of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory between 1785 and 1800, he created a great number motifs for the porcelain pieces designed to embellish the houses of princes and royals. This bouquet containing several varieties of roses was placed in a precious dark-stone vase on a marble base. While vermilion and crimson roses circle the composition, a white rose and a pale centifolia rose (also known as the “painters’ rose”), focus the effects of the light. Also crowning the bouquet, the latter has been painted at every stage of its development: as a bud, half-open and in full bloom.