The sower is dressed in a typical peasant's attire, with his legs draped in straw to provide more warmth, walking in long strides, and carrying a bag of seeds over his shoulder, while he is in the act of sowing his crops with the right hand.

In the same year he painted a nearly identical second version (Yamanashi Prefectural Art Museum, Kofu), which he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1850 where it received much attention and criticism.

[3][4] Critic Clément de Ris praised it as "an energetic study full of movement", while Théophile Gautier derided it as "trowel scrapings".

Art historian Anthea Callen stated that "Millet intentionally transformed his human laborer into a sinewy giant of a man by elongating his proportions ... Reinforced by the sower's dominance of the pictorial space and our low viewpoint, his menacing appearance to the Parisian bourgeoisie in 1850 is thus readily explicable.

Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh found inspiration in Millet's paintings of agricultural landscapes and farm workers.