Haystacks (Monet)

Haystacks is the title of a series of impressionist paintings by Claude Monet. The primary subjects of all of the paintings in the series are stacks of grain that have been stacked in the field after the harvest season. The title refers primarily to a twenty-five canvas series (Wildenstein Index Number 1266-1290) begun the fall of 1890 and continued through the following spring, using that year's grain harvest. Some use a broader definition of the title to refer to other paintings by Monet with this same theme. The series is known for its thematic use of repetition to show differences in perception of light across various times of day, seasons, and types of weather. The subjects were painted in fields near Monet's home in Giverny, France. The series is among Monet's most notable works. Although the largest collections of Monet's work are held in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay and Musée Marmottan Monet, Boston, Massachusetts at the Museum of Fine Arts, New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art and Tokyo at the National Museum of Western Art, six of the twenty-five haystacks pieces are currently housed at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, United States holds two, and The Louvre in Paris, France holds one. Other museums that hold parts of this series in their collection include the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, Kunsthaus Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland, and Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Several private collections also hold Haystack paintings.