Rosa Bonheur was arguably one of the main leaders in the romantic era of art. Bonheur received the majority of her training from her father, Raymond Bonheur. Saint Simonian also encouraged her artistic career and independence. At the young age of fourteen she started making copies at the Louvre in Paris. Her own works were greatly influenced as well as fascinated by trends in natural history including the theories of Etienne Goeggroy Saint-Hilaire. 

She kept a menagerie, frequented a slaughterhouse and dissected animals to gain a greater knowledge of their anatomy. Many of her works include exotic as well as non-exotic animals Bonheur attracted notice in 1845 from Theophile Thore's salon with her works: Goats and Sheep and Rabbits Nibbling Carrots, which won third prize. As a result of her success at this salon she was commissioned by the state to create Ploughing in the Nivernais. 

Bonheur brilliantly illustrates the rural landscape of the French province of Nivernais in central France. The piece is inspired by George Sand's novel, La Mare au Diable. The open space of the piece shows Bonheur's own longing for freedom in a world dominated by men. While the cattle ranchers (men) and cattle (women) themselves represent the view that women were meant to be subservient to men. The piece follows a strict linear composition meaning that the ideology of gender performance was viewed as unescapable. Bonheur paints a realistic rendering including vibrant blues in the sky, deep browns and beiges shown on the cattle and luscious greens in the grass. Bonheur’s stunning work portrays not only the beautiful landscape of rural France, but the social landscape lived by French women.