Writer Théophile Gautier in his work about the Salon de 1848 described this painting thus: “It is impossible to see anything rougher, more fierce, more bristling, more uncultivated; well! this mortar, this thick mess to retain the brush, is of excellent locality, of a fine and warm tone when one steps back three paces. This winnower who raises his van with his ragged knee, and raises into the air, in the middle of a column of golden dust, the grain of his basket, arches his back in the most masterly manner." He also adds that "M. Millet's painting has everything it takes to exasperate the bourgeois with hairless chins", a remark which explains the interest that the Republicans found in this work.
