From the mid-1880s Moore 'began to experiment in pastel, and indeed this was a medium he came to use increasingly in the later years of his life. Roses, exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885, is a particularly fine example of his use of this medium. According to Baldry it was a repitition of the theme of two watercolours, Oranges and Lanterns, which had been exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society earlier that year in which he had "aimed at the swing and play of moving draperies, and the pose and gesture of limbs rhythmically stirred"' (Richard Green in The Moore Family Pictures, cat. p.37)