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The atmospheric painting Flora, Awakening the Flowers belongs to a group of seasonal paintings in which Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901), from the 1870s onwards, sought to capture the poetic content of nature's awakening in ever new pictorial inventions. In the Spring paintings, the viewer is initially confronted with either a group of women playing music or the Three Graces. Here, however, the ancient goddess Flora is placed alone at the centre of the composition. She plays the harp in the middle of a Tuscan landscape, surrounded by a group of sleeping or awakening putti with wreaths of flowers. In rhythmic alternation, the goddess accompanies the rebirth of spring, watching over the blossoming and growth of nature, constantly bringing new flowers to life.

At the same time as Impressionism was developing a revolutionary understanding of art in France, Böcklin was categorised as a Symbolist. Born in Basel, Böcklin studied in Düsseldorf, travelled extensively and met Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880) in Munich. Böcklin, Feuerbach, Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) and Hans von Marées (1837–1887) are regarded as the 'Deutschrömer', a circle of German-speaking artists who were inspired by the art of the Italian Renaissance.