Monet's Haystacks (Grainstacks)
Monet painted the same stacks of grain in the field beside his house again and again, from late summer 1890 into the winter.
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About the series
The Haystacks, also called Grainstacks or Wheatstacks, are a series of about 25 canvases Claude Monet painted in 1890 and 1891. The stacks stood in a field close to his house at Giverny, and Monet worked on several canvases at once, changing from one to the next as the light moved.
The subject is simple: one or two stacks, a strip of field, a line of trees and hills. What changes is the season, the hour and the weather, from summer heat to snow and frost at sunset. Monet showed fifteen of them at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris in May 1891, and the exhibition was a commercial success. The Art Institute of Chicago holds several, and others are in the Musée d'Orsay and museums across Europe, the United States and Japan.
The canvases are wide landscapes, so a pair works well above a sofa or sideboard. Pick one warm summer view and one snow scene to show the contrast Monet was after.
