Two Grainstacks at the End of the Day Autumn

Claude Monet

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Keywords: GrainstacksDayAutumn

Work Overview

Grainstacks at the End of the Day, Autumn
Claude Monet
Date: 1891
Style: Impressionism
Genre: landscape


The Haystacks series was a financial success.[28] Fifteen of these were exhibited by Durand-Ruel in May 1891, and every painting sold within days.[28] The exhibit met with great public acclaim. Octave Mirbeau described Monet's daring series as representing "what lies beyond progress itself." Others described the stacks as "faces of the landscape" - they represented the countryside as a retreat from daily problems and home for contentment with nature. Camille Pissarro said: "These canvases breathe contentment."[14] Most of the paintings sold immediately for as much as 1,000 francs.[29] Additionally, Monet’s prices, in general, began to rise steeply. As a result, he was able to buy outright the house and grounds at Giverny and to start constructing a waterlily pond. After years of mere subsistence living, he was able to enjoy success.


The series demonstrates his intense study of light and atmospheric conditions and Monet was a perfectionist in his renderings. Monet destroyed more than one series of paintings that he found wanting.[30] However, this series escaped his own harsh self-criticism and destruction.