George Cochran Lambdin spent most of his life in Philadelphia. His father, James Reid Lambdin, taught him to paint, and George started his career as a portrait artist when he was in his early twenties. He soon began to focus on genre paintings of women and children, which he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy of Design. Later in his career, Lambdin created many floral paintings, probably inspired by his surroundings in Philadelphia, which was then known as the City of Flowers.