Henriette Knip, descendant of the famous Knip family, received her first painting lessons at a very young age from her father, Nicolaas Frederik, where she discovered her great interest in flower and fruit still life. Compared to her 18th-century predecessors, she applied new elements. For example, she now and then no longer arranged her flowers, including rare exotic species, in a vase but laid them down separately. At the age of 19, Henriëtte was apprenticed to the successful flower painter Gerard van Spaendonck in Paris. After her studies she gave painting lessons in Amsterdam in the winter. In the summer she stayed at the Haarlem flower nursery of A.C. van Eeden to paint flowers based on life.