As his friend Alfred Sensier related, this theme "obsessed the artist's mind" until he exhibited the work at the Paris Salon of 1864, where it was a great success, called a "refined canvas" by some and a "masterpiece" by others.

At the center of the composition, but slightly shifted to the right, there is a young shepherdess standing quietly (perhaps the model used was the painter's own daughter), intent on working the wool with the needles.

The dog acts almost as a compositional counterweight to the compact mass of the sheep, like an unexpected and lively element in front of the perfect horizontal symmetry of the flock.

Looking towards the horizon, however, the viewer sees a monotonous and repetitive landscape, punctuated by various paths and trails that, with their polychromy, contribute to delineate an ideal vanishing point, thanks to which the painting acquires a lively and pulsating depth.

The upper portion of the canvas is occupied by a livid sky, furrowed by a mass of clouds that, obscuring the sun, contribute to flood the scene with a diffuse and golden luminosity.