Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect), one of a series of paintings that French artist Claude Monet created between 1890 and 1891 depicting heaps of grain behind his house in Giverny, France. Comprising 25 canvases, the series as a whole tracks the effect that light, both in various seasons and during different times of the day, has upon the appearance and shape of a pile of wheat. It reflects the artist’s passion for rendering his everyday experiences and his meticulous exploration of the behavior of natural light. The latter is perhaps the one salient aspect that sets Monet’s oeuvre apart from that of his fellow Impressionists.
In October 1890 Monet wrote about the series in a letter to his future biographer Gustave Geffroy: “I am working very hard, struggling with a series of different effects (haystacks), but at this season the sun sets so fast I cannot follow it.” He went on to say that he was after what he called “instantaneity”—the “envelope” of light that unifies a scene for an instant, before changing to create a new momentary effect. Though the paintings of grain heaps were begun out of doors, they were finished in the studio, and Monet intended them to be viewed together. When 15 of the paintings were exhibited in 1891, the show was a triumph. Critics not only saw Monet’s unique rendering of light effects, but also responded to the French rural subject matter. The artist may also have been concerned with the stacks of wheat themselves as symbols of the fertility and prosperity of the French agricultural landscape.
Each work in the collection has a similar composition, focusing on one or two conical heaps of wheat in a field. Winter views make up the majority of the series, and in Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect), two stacks, coated lightly with snow, occupy the left side of the painting. Rather than using white to render the snow, Monet employs blues and pinks, suggesting the effect the setting sun has on the frozen landscape. The blues extend to the left part of the sky, making it difficult to distinguish the horizon. This subtly elevates the painting from being merely an instance of naturalistic description to something entirely more abstract. Monet brings a sense of wonder to a seemingly mundane subject and renders concrete the idea that nature, far from being static, is in fact dynamic and even revelatory.