World Museum Guide
#47

Most Searched Artwork #47 Worldwide

Haystacks

Claude Monet · 1890–1891 · Art Institute of Chicago

Quick Answer

Haystacks (or Stacks of Wheat) is a series of twenty-five oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet, created between 1890 and 1891. Each depicts the same haystacks in a field near his home at Giverny, Normandy, under different light conditions, times of day, and seasons. The series is the first of Monet's major serial paintings and is considered the founding moment of painting as a meditation on time and perception. Multiple versions are in major collections; the Art Institute of Chicago holds six.

Haystacks by Claude Monet — golden haystacks in a field at sunset, rendered in warm orange and red light

Public domain — Claude Monet, 1890–1891. Private collection / Wikimedia Commons.

At a Glance

Artist
Claude Monet (1840–1926)
Created
1890–1891
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Various — typically 65 × 100 cm
Location
Gallery 241, Art Institute of Chicago

Find it at

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

"The same haystacks, 25 times — the series that invented serial painting"

History & Story

Monet began the Haystacks series in the summer of 1890, working in the fields near Giverny. He reportedly asked his stepdaughter Blanche to carry additional canvases so that as the light changed he could switch from one canvas to another, capturing each moment before it shifted. He worked on the series through the winter, spring, and summer of 1891, accumulating over 25 canvases.

The series was exhibited at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris in May 1891 — all fifteen exhibited sold within three days. Pissarro wrote to his son that the exhibition was a 'magnificent success.' The young Wassily Kandinsky saw one of the paintings in Moscow and was so struck by the subject's dissolution in light that it began his journey toward abstract painting.

Why It Matters

Haystacks invented serial painting — the idea that the same subject, painted repeatedly under different conditions, could reveal the infinite changeability of light and perception rather than the fixed 'truth' of the motif. Monet was not trying to capture the haystacks but to capture time passing over them. This shift from the object to the conditions of seeing the object was the founding insight of modern abstract art: the painting's subject is experience, not the world.

Key Facts & Figures

First serial work: Haystacks is Monet's first major series — preceding Rouen Cathedral and the Poplars series
Sold in three days: All fifteen shown at Durand-Ruel in 1891 sold within three days of exhibition
Kandinsky's revelation: Seeing a Haystacks painting in Moscow led Kandinsky toward abstraction — he could not identify the subject but was moved by the pure colour
Auction record: A version sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2019 for $110.7 million — a record for any Monet at auction
Six at Art Institute of Chicago: The Art Institute holds six Haystacks paintings — the largest single-institution collection of the series

Common Questions About Haystacks

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