Description
The monumental stacks that Claude Monet depicted in his series Stacks of Wheat rose fifteen to twenty feet and stood just outside the artist’s farmhouse at Giverny. Through 1890 and 1891, he worked on this series both in the field, painting simultaneously at several easels, and in the studio, refining pictorial harmonies. In May 1891, Monet hung fifteen of these canvases next to each other in one small room in the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. An unprecedented critical and financial success, the exhibition marked a breakthrough in Monet’s career, as well as in the history of French art. In this view, and in nearly all of the autumn views in the series, the conical tops of the stacks break the horizon and push into the sky. But in most of the winter views, which constitute the core of the series, the stacks seem wrapped by bands of hill and field, as if bedded down for the season. For Monet, the stack was a resonant symbol of sustenance and survival. He followed this group with further series depicting poplars, the facade of Rouen Cathedral, and, later, his own garden at Giverny. The Art Institute has the largest group of Monet’s Stacks of Wheat in the world.
Provenance
The artist (d. 1926); possibly sold to "Hamman," the director of Roland Knoedler’s gallery, Paris, as agent for Knoedler and Company, New York, Sept. 1891 [per Wildenstein 1996. According to the Frick Collection’s online “Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America,” Hamman was the director of the Paris gallery]; sold at the Knoedler, New York, sale, Chickering Hall, New York, Apr. 11, 1893, lot 77, to Durand-Ruel, New York, and Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris, in half-shares, for 6,000 francs [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1888–93 (no. 1060, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. See also American Art Association 1893: annotated copies of the sale catalogue in the curatorial object file indicate that Durand-Ruel and Boussod et Valadon purchased the painting in half shares, along with two price notations, $1,200 and $1250]; half share sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Sept. 30, 1899 or Nov. 13, 1899 [per Durand-Ruel, New York stock book for 1894–1905 (no. 1060, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant and Durand-Ruel, Paris stock book for 1901–13 (no. 5503, Meules au soleil couchant), both confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; half share sold to Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris, May 27, 1903 [per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 5503, as Meules au soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives,to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. An additional letter from the Durand-Ruel Archives clarifies that the painting became solely owned by Boussod, Valadon et Cie at this time. Additionally, “Le tableau appartient totalement à Boussod et Valadon et est alors sorti de notre stock,” Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy at the Durand-Ruel Archives to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 12, 2002, in curatorial object file]. Rosenberg, Paris, 1903 [per Wildenstein 1996]; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Jan. 11, 1908 [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 8601, as Meules, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Nov. 11, 1915 or Dec. 9, 1915 [see previous and this and the following per Durand-Ruel, New York stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3899, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives,to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; sold to André Weil, Paris, Jan. 9, 1948. Wildenstein, New York and Paris, by 1982 [per Wildenstein 1996 and this and the two following per Rachel Adler to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 27, 2002, e-mail correspondence, in curatorial object file]; sold to Mercedes Eraso de Rodríguez Landaeta, Caracas, Venezuela, by 1982. Rachel Adler Fine Art, New York, by Aug. 1982; sold to James Goodman Gallery, New York, Aug. 1982 [per fax from Patricia H. Tompkins, James Goodman Gallery, to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 21, 2002, copy in curatorial file]; sold to Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York, Feb. 7, 1983 [per telephone conversation between Stephen Hahn and the Art Institute of Chicago, May 14, 2002; notes from the conversation dated June 10, 2002 in curatorial object file]; half share sold to Acquavella Galleries, New York, Feb. 7, 1983 [per telephone conversation between Gail Edmondson, Acquavella Galleries, and the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 16, 1998; notes from conversation in curatorial object file.; and per telephone conversation between Stephen Hahn and the Art Institute of Chicago, May 14, 2002; notes from the conversation dated June 10, 2002 in curatorial object file]; sold to Daniel C. Searle, Winnetka, Ill., Feb. 7, 1983 [per Art Dealers Association of America document, Sept. 26, 1991, in curatorial object file]; given by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle, Winnetka, Ill., to the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning in 1983 [The painting was given to the Art Institute of Chicago in undivided fractional interests beginning in 1983. The Art Institute received the final fractional interest for 100 percent ownership in 1991].
Accession Number
100191
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
64.4 × 92.5 cm (25 3/8 × 36 7/16 in.); Framed: 79.1 × 107 × 5.8 cm (31 1/8 × 42 1/8 × 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle
Tags
Color: Orange Color: Gray
Background & Context
Background Story
Claude Monet's "Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset)" (1890–91) is one of the celebrated Haystacks series, this one capturing the moment of thaw—when snow begins to melt—at sunset. The painting shows the monumental haystack in a field, the snow melting around it, the low sun casting warm golden light across the scene. The contrast between the cool blues and purples of the melting snow and the warm oranges and golds of the sunset creates a chromatic tension that is characteristic of Monet's most ambitious work. The Haystacks series, comprising over twenty-five paintings, was Monet's first great serial project and the work that established him as the leading figure of Impressionism. Each painting in the series captures a different moment of light and weather, demonstrating Monet's revolutionary insight that the subject of painting could be the transient effects of light rather than the permanent forms of objects. This particular canvas, with its complex interplay of warm and cool tones, is one of the most accomplished of the series.
Cultural Impact
The Haystacks series transformed the course of modern painting by demonstrating that serial observation of a single subject under changing conditions could reveal the fundamental instability of visual perception.
Why It Matters
This haystack at sunset during the thaw captures the Impressionist project at its most ambitious: the same ordinary subject transformed by the unique conjunction of season, weather, and time of day into a vision of extraordinary beauty.
