In music history, the term "Romantic period" has conventionally been used to categorize the 1800s. However, considering the successive revolutions, the political climate of the latter half of the century, and the evolving trends in musical culture, many difficulties have been pointed out in encompassing all 19th-century music within the spirit of Romanticism. Nevertheless, when it comes to Schumann, the expression "Romantic" fits him best. This is not only because his musical language was romantic, but also because Schumann himself, full of creativity and overflowing emotion, was a true Romanticist who sought to dissolve his self into the infinite.

Young Robert, who inherited rich talents in literature and music from both his parents' lineages, spent most of his time on literature and music, contrary to his family's expectations, even during the period when he was supposed to be studying law at both Leipzig and Heidelberg Universities. At Easter in 1828, a 17-year-old Schumann left an autobiographical note stating: "Storms of nocturnal joy. Daily improvisations. Jean Paul-esque literary fantasies. Particularly enthusiastic about Schubert, also Beethoven. A little about Bach. A letter to Schubert."

Composed between 1829 and 1831 and published in April 1832 by Kistner in Leipzig, the same publisher as Op. 1 (Abegg Variations), Papillons (autograph manuscript currently held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France) has a deep connection with the unfinished novel Flegeljahre (1804) by the Bavarian writer Jean Paul (1763-1825, real name Johann Paul Friedrich Richter), whom Schumann himself called "in a sense, a book like the Bible." Initially, Schumann stated that he "attempted to represent the masked ball scene in sound" from the novel's final chapter, and indeed, he had written in his copy of Flegeljahre, at ten different places, the corresponding movement numbers of Papillons, implying movements 1 through 10.

However, he later emphasized that he did not set the music to the text, and that only the final movement was inspired by Jean Paul. Indeed, if Flegeljahre were the model, the sequence of Papillons would be movements 2-3-4-7-11-1-6-5-9-8-10-12, and the progression of events in the novel does not perfectly align with Schumann's music. Nevertheless, regarding the titles of the pieces, which are derived from the symbols of romantic poetic ideals in Jean Paul's fantastical world, they perfectly match the light and fresh musical character and the elegant transformation of several short pieces.

The work begins with a D major unison introduction that serves a role reminiscent of Weber's "Invitation to the Dance." In measure 6, it stops on A, and this dominant note is carried over as the opening note of the first movement. This means that these movements are very closely related, and the first two movements present important motives for the entire work: ascending and descending scalar melodies. The subsequent eleven movements display diverse characteristics in many respects, including key, character, and dance idioms. However, a "unified whole" composed of individual short pieces is masterfully constructed through motivic connections derived from the introduction and the first movement, the frequent use of triple meter and specific rhythms, a sense of expressive unity, melodic reminiscence (especially the quotation of the first movement in the final twelfth movement), and the tonal consistency in the outer framework of the introduction and the final movement.