Millet based this etching on his now famous same-titled oil painting currently held at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. When it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857, it was not perceived well because of its large size (33x44 inches), which was a scale usually at this time reserved for religious, historical and mythological paintings, and because it depicted everyday labor, illustrating a realistic view of poverty and the working class.
