In compositional construction, this painting strongly resembles Bastien-Lepage’s breakthrough picture called, Haymaking, which established him as the leading painter of the Naturalist school. Academically trained and equipped with the illusionistic skill to describe the finery of his sitters in society portraiture with as much ease as the countryside of his youth in the village of Damvillers in northeastern France.

Bastien-Lepage dominated the Parisian art scene in the years following the emergence of Impressionism. His technique oscillates between extremely fine detail, such as the nubbed texture of the rugged soles of the sower’s boots — and more summary painterly passages, as in the waving wheat field and the expansive vista of the upper half of the composition. Bastien-Lepage captivated the likes of Vincent van Gogh, who praised him for the authenticity of his depictions.