George Cochran Lambdin's paintings of flowers, particularly roses, against a dark background became his most critically renown and popular works. A native of Philadelphia, specifically the Germantown section of the city, Lambdin took advantage of the area's superb reputation for domestic rose cultivation. Although he lived on a modest property in Germantown, he hired a gardener to grow the flowers that became the principle subject matter of his best paintings.

Mark Mitchell in his excellent article on Lambdin writes about the public’s reception of the paintings and their place in the history of still life. In essence, Lambdin’s flower paintings were of many periods and ideas at once. They speak to the rich tradition of still life painting in Philadelphia begun by the Peale family, yet the uniqueness of their compositions looks forward to more modern interpretations of the genre. The exacting detail of the flowers themselves demonstrates the influence of Pre-Raphaelite realism. Yet, the lacquer-like backgrounds and asymmetrical arrangement of the flowers convey Lambdin’s interest in Asian art and the emergent tastes of the American aesthetic movement. More broadly, Mitchell writes that Lambdin's used his paintings to engage a viewer's pathos through their poignant symbolism. Indeed, these paintings beautifully capture the cycle of life, while also providing a pure sense of enjoyment.

Mark D. Mitchell, “Rose Fever: The Paintings of George Cochran Lambdin,” The Magazine Antiques (November/December 2011), pp. 116–21.