Stubbs announced his intention to engrave the pictures in 1788–1789, publishing the engravings in 1791. He later adapted the subjects to three oval versions painted in enamel: 'Haymaking', 1794 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight), 'Haymakers', 1795 (Lady Lever Art Gallery) and 'Reapers', 1795 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut). Picturesque rural subjects were popular during this period, and had been depicted by Gainsborough, Wheatley and Morland and some of the many illustrators of Thomson's 'Seasons'. Stubbs's 'Haymakers' is similar to an oval scene on the same theme painted in watercolour by Thomas Hearne, 'A Landscape and Figures' from Thomson's 'Seasons' of 1783 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester). This suggests that the two artists may have studied the same scene, or that Stubbs borrowed from Hearne the images of the girl pausing in front of the haycart with her hayrake upright, the woman raking in hay, and the man on top of the cart. Hearne's picture was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1783, but Stubbs chose not to exhibit his early versions of 'Haymakers' and 'Reapers' that year, possibly to avoid the inevitable comparisons.

The pictures' unsentimental yet sympathetic observation of work in the countryside, with little or no narrative content, is reminiscent of Stubbs's earlier depictions of groups of grooms and stable-lads rubbing down horses. The location of the scenes has not been identified. It is possibly in the south midlands, although such scenes could have been witnessed in fields on the outskirts of London, within a few miles of Stubbs's house at Somerset Street, London. Ozias Humphry noted in his manuscript 'Memoir of Stubbs' (Liverpool Central Libraries) that the artist was accustomed to walk eight or nine miles a day.

Further reading: Basil Taylor, 'Stubbs', London 1971, p.213, reproduced pl.103 Judy Egerton, 'George Stubbs 1724–1806', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1996, pp.166–168, reproduced p.166 in colour Terry Riggs January 1998