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Francesco Zuccarelli was born in Pitigliano, Tuscany, in 1702. At a young age he moved to Rome, where he studied with various painters such as Giovanni Maria Morandi and Pietro Nelli, eventually specialising in landscapes, which he varied only slightly during his career as an artist. He then spent some time in Florence before settling in Venice in the 1730s, where he was celebrated for his pastoral scenes. Zuccarelli was also held in high esteem by the British consul Joseph Smith, who was also Canaletto's patron. After several years in England and Venice, he returned to London in 1752, where he was the only Italian to become a founding member of the Royal Academy in London. In the 1770s Zuccarelli returned to Rome and finally Florence, where he died in 1788.
In the mid-18th century, numerous Italian painters like Zuccarelli travelled to England and produced the extremely popular landscape idylls for the English audience. The depictions mostly show southern landscapes and their inhabitants, folk types and genre, vedute and ruins as well as views of villages.
The centre is formed by a small shepherd boy, staged playfully, with a shepherd's crook running after the small flock of sheep and a goat, which previously enjoyed the cool water. There is a harmonious, yet orchestrated, unity between nature, animal and man.