Millet did not instantly receive recognition for his work from the Paris Salon. His first work, presented in 1939, was rejected entirely, and it was not until he presented the Salon with Oedipus Taken Down from the Tree that he received critical success. This was also presented along with The Winnower, which was eventually bought by the French government. This painting is one of the few in which Millet did not portray rural French peasants, which were his most oft-painted subjects. Rather, it depicts the mythological character of Oedipus, who had been strung up on a tree by his father, is being rescued by shepherds.