Claude Monet - Getreideschober (1890)

 

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In an extensive series of 25 paintings, Claude Monet dedicated himself to the grain stacks in 1890/91, which stood in the fields near his house in Giverny. Systematically, he observed them under different lighting and weather conditions. Here, Monet leads the viewer's gaze diagonally along a row of stacks into the depth of the painting. Sunbeams intersect this diagonal line, and the vibrant colors culminate at the edges of the front stack.

In French, Monet's paintings from this series are titled "Meules," which can be roughly translated as "Stacks." For a long time, the title was incorrectly translated as "Haystacks" in English. However, the objects depicted by Monet are the typical grain sheaves of 19th-century Normandy agriculture – storage units of unthreshed grain, covered with straw or hay in a conical shape to protect the valuable harvest from moisture and decay. Monet, who had a keen sense of the landscape, must have been fascinated by the fact that these sculptural-like objects of considerable size appeared in the fields around his house every year around the same time, covering the meadows like a temporary installation. Additionally, the motif held symbolic significance for the farming community of Giverny, and it allowed Monet to address the cyclical change of nature in the shifting seasons – and thus the passage of time itself – through the serial format.

Among the 25 variations that Monet created of the grain stacks in just a few months in 1890 and 1891, this painting holds a special position. Through the diagonal composition, the artist introduced a dynamic element, enhanced by the unusually intense colors and the backlight effect. Unlike any other depiction of the motif, this composition demonstrates the influence of Japanese woodblock prints, which Monet, like many of his colleagues, collected with great enthusiasm.