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A farmyard in front of a well-appointed farmhouse, which rises up centrally in the background, with to the right a well and a small barn, and to the left in the distance a vegetable garden and a rural hamlet around a church, all set the scene for the busy occupations of the countryfolk in the foreground. Three women are preparing their vegetable harvest for market, assisted in the right background by a waggoner and watched on the left by a friendly-looking dog and a maid with a milking pail on her head and a pot with a handle in her hand. Behind her a peasant woman is letting cattle out of the barn whilst a lad is driving towards the herd a couple of sheep that have strayed into this attractive tableau, producing a light-hearted anecdote that links the various planes.
The motif of the poster announcing the sale of the farm introduces a hint of uncertainty and of impending doom. Even so, the general impression of Siberechts' composition is that of an undisturbable natural order and rural calm. In doing so he touches a sensitive chord with the modern city-dweller. Country life already exercised a particular attraction on the painter's contemporaries, leading to the building of many country houses away from the cities. The dignity with which the country-folk are depicted is typical of Siberechts. There is no longer any hint of "boorish" behaviour - a proverbial term for the low appreciation in which a civilised bourgeoisie held country people and which expressed its dislike in many a vituperative tableau.
Siberechts' noble peasants are often compared with those of France's Le Nain brothers. Possibly Siberechts drew inspiration for his noble portrayal from Brussels painter Michael Sweerts. For the motifs, such as the milkmaid carrying her heavy pail on her head, the reader is referred to her counterpart in Rubens' late landscapes. When it comes to the sculptural stateliness of Siberecht's figures, we should not forget that his father was a sculptor. This painting, the theme of which departs from his more usual "Landscapes with Fords", came into being in his Antwerp period, before the artist entered the service of the English aristocracy. An analogous work, the Farmyard, dated from 1662, is also conserved in the Brussels museum.
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