Monet's+Haystacks+(painting)

= = = = = = The story behind **//Haystacks//** is that one day Claude Monet was walking and he noticed a field of haystacks. The stacks were a part of the beauty of the countryside of the Normandy region of France. When Monet saw the haystacks he requested that his stepdaughter bring him two canvases, one so he could paint the overcast weather and another so he could paint the sunny weather. As Monet began painting he soon realized that he would need more than one canvas to show all the impressions of the haystacks. Once he realized this he had wheelbarrows full of canvases brought to him. His daily routine soon became painting the haystacks or adding on to an unfinished painting of the haystacks that most resembled the scene of the moment. Once he finished painting the haystacks he revised the final product in a studio. This series of paintings was one of the earliest that relied on thematic repetition across natural variation such as the time of day. = = Living in a rural setting, Monet most likely felt that the haystacks represented how harvesting from the land is a continuous way of sustaining life for ourselves and our animals. Wanting to capture the changes in light throughout the different seasons and time must have been challenging and the reason for the almost thirty haystack paintings. During this period Monet wrote to a critic Gustave Geoffroy saying…”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…” In 1891 Monet exhibited fifteen Haystack paintings at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. Today Monet’s haystack paintings are held in many different museums across the U.S, France, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Switzerland, and Tokyo. = = These Impressionism paintings play an important role in the world of art. Many consider Impressionism to be considered the First Modern Art Movement. Artists such as Cezanne, Degas and Renoir were a few of the artists who seemed to oppose the French traditionalist artists of that time and adopted Monet’s impressionism style. The Impressionistic artists faced many critics with their new art style. Monet was a part of a group of artists whose work had been frequently rejected to be exhibited at the annual art show “Salon de Paris” and formed the “Societe Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteus, and Graveurs” and opened their own exhibition. This independent exhibition allowed the impressionist artists to hang their work at eye level for easy viewing and offered better opportunity for purchase. The impressionism art style began in Paris and included artists outside of France, but the French painters, such as Claude Monet will always be among the most famous. = =
 * Monet's Haystacks **
 * //Haystacks //**is the title of a series of impressionist paintings by Claude Monet that were made in between the years of 1890-1891. The paintings are of stacks of hay in a field after the harvest season thus getting the name **//Haystacks.//** The paintings were made during the end of the summer of 1890 and continued to the following spring of 1891. The paintings are known for showing the different kinds of light throughout various times of day, seasons, and types of weather. The paintings are impressionist which means it has small yet visible brush strokes, some kind of movement element, and unusual angles. Monet painted this series of paintings in fields near his house in Giverny, France. Today this series of paintings is still one of Monet’s most famous works.