Why Did Monet Paint the Same Haystacks Again and Again?

Why did Monet paint the same haystacks again and again?

Monet painted the stacks again and again to record how the same subject looks in changing light. The Art Institute of Chicago says that of all the motifs Monet used to explore changing light effects, the grain stacks are among the most iconic. He painted them at various times of the year and at different moments of the day.

A stack of wheat is simple in shape and does not move. Put several of the paintings side by side, and most of what differs between them is the color of the light and the direction of the shadows.

The museum adds a second reason the motif mattered: for Monet, the stack was a resonant symbol of sustenance and survival. The series is an experiment with light, and it is also a picture of the harvest that rural life depended on.

Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) at a glance

In English the series is often called the Haystacks or the Grainstacks. The Art Institute of Chicago uses the title Stacks of Wheat, and that title finds its paintings fastest in the museum's collection.

A field by the house, several easels at once

The stacks Monet painted were monumental, fifteen to twenty feet high, and they stood just outside his farmhouse at Giverny.

According to the Art Institute, Monet worked on the series both in the field and in the studio. Outdoors he painted at several easels at the same time. In the studio he refined the color harmonies of each canvas.

Autumn and winter stacks look different

The Art Institute of Chicago has the largest group of Monet's Stacks of Wheat in the world. Its collection includes six of the oil paintings:

• Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)
• Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn)
• Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect)
• Stack of Wheat (Snow Effect, Overcast Day)
• Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset)
• Stack of Wheat

The museum gives one clue for comparing them. In nearly all of the autumn views, the conical tops of the stacks break the horizon and push into the sky. In most of the winter views, which form the core of the series, the stacks seem wrapped by bands of hill and field, as if bedded down for the season.

You can see the first case in End of Summer: the tip of the large stack on the right rises past the line of the hills into the sky. Put it next to a winter canvas, and the same shape seems to reach upward in one season and settle into the ground in the other.

Fifteen canvases in one room, 1891

In May 1891 Monet hung fifteen of the canvases next to each other in one small room at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. The Art Institute calls the exhibition an unprecedented critical and financial success, and a breakthrough both in Monet's career and in the history of French art.

The critic Octave Mirbeau wrote that the paintings conveyed "the drama of the earth."

Monet followed the stacks with more series: poplars, the facade of Rouen Cathedral, and later his own garden at Giverny. For the garden series, read How many Water Lilies did Monet paint?

A viewing sequence for Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)

1. Compare the size and position of the small stack on the left and the large one on the right
2. Find the spot where the top of the right-hand stack crosses the line of the hills
3. Compare the colors on the sunlit side and the shaded side of each stack
4. Look at the shadows on the ground in front and compare them with the stacks themselves
5. Finally, look at the sky and the hills and decide what time of day the light suggests

This wide canvas loses little when it fills a 16:9 monitor, which is why it appears in the Monet wallpaper guide for Mac. For why the Impressionists chased light at all, see Impressionism vs Post-Impressionism.