[1] The painting depicts "the interior of a woolshed with the owner and his wife watching the fleece being weighed, a shorn stud ram and an unshorn one.

He has his hand half in pocket as he assumes a haughty mien — casual proprietorship — while his wife is placed, seated, on an adjacent bag of wool.

[3]Lambert claimed to have had the painting in mind for 25 years, a period that suggests it may be a riposte to Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams.

Jim Davidson stated that "Certainly it could not be more different in spirit: instead of the celebration of strong masculine labour, this painting endorses wealth and the social order.

[4] The painting was commissioned by Leigh Sadlier Falkiner, the owner of Wanganella station, near Deniliquin in the Riverina region of New South Wales.