Jacqueline Folie (Pieter Brueghel de Jonge, exhibition catalogue, Maastricht, 1993) proposed that the prototype was French, given the French calendar hanging on the right wall, and noting that the short beards, close-cropped hair and costume of the peasants were not consistent with styles predominant in the Southern Netherlands during Brueghel’s lifetime. While French was the language formally used in legal practice in the Netherlands during the period, meaning that the calendar was not necessarily reliant on a French model.

Seated at the right of the composition, engrossed in the papers before him, the lawyer is dressed in the traditional cap of his profession. Tax- or tithe-collectors were not typically men with law degrees and the setting of the office, with the hanging bags of papers, are familiar with those used for decrees and requests in law suits, rather than records of taxation, which would traditionally have been kept in large bound registers. The peasants gathering before him hold produce, hoping to use this to barter for his assistance.