Monet - Haystack series


Looking out my window I was inspired by the Claude Monet series of painting images in my head. You must be familiar with them. With this first snow fall, I took this photo in morning sunrise light.


So, my project then, is to do a series throughout the seasons and various lighting conditions. What a challenge; must stick with it. The canvases will be smaller sizes, keeping it simple, but taking a couple of years.









Haystacks - Monet      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monet noticed this subject on a casual walk. He requested that his stepdaughter Blanche Hoschedé bring him two canvases. He believed that one canvas for overcast weather and one for sunny weather would be sufficient. However, he realized he could not demonstrate the several distinct impressions on one or two canvases. As a result, his willing helper was quickly carting as many canvases as a wheelbarrow could hold. His daily routine involved carting paints, easels, and many unfinished canvases and working on whichever canvas most closely resembled the scene of the moment as conditions fluctuated. Although he began painting realistic depictions en plein air, he eventually revised initial effects in a studio to both generate contrast and preserve the harmony within the series.
Monet produced numerous Haystack paintings. His earlier had included haystacks in an ancillary manner. Monet had also produced five paintings with haystacks as the primary subject during the 1888 harvest. The general consensus is that only the canvases produced using the 1890 harvest comprise the haystacks series proper. However, some include several additional paintings when referencing this series. For example, Hill-Stead Museum discusses their two serial haystack or grainstack paintings even though one is from the 1890 harvest and the other is from the 1888 harvest.
This series is one of Monet's earliest that relied on thematic repetition to illustrate nuances in perception across natural variation such as times of day, seasons, and types of weather. For Monet, the concept of producing and exhibiting a series of paintings related by subject and vantage point began in 1889, with at least ten paintings done at the Valley of the Creuse, and subsequently shown at the Galerie Georges Petit. This interest in the serial motif would continue for the rest of his career.

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