The painting depicts an idyllic, pastoral scene of a lone young woman in peasant attire posed for the artist, balancing a stick (likely her crook) across her shoulders, standing barefooted in the foreground.

It is one of many paintings by Bouguereau depicting shepherdesses, including one of the same name created in 1881.

The subject is a model employed by Bouguereau for this and other paintings, including The Bohemian.

The Shepherdess is currently in the permanent collection at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, where it has become an emblematic image for the museum.

It was the central image of a travelling exhibition about Bouguereau and his students that Philbrook created in 2006.