Claude Monet
Today is our last day of partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland, and we finish it with a classic, winter painting. We all know this ... winter is coming!
The complementary colors orange and blue enrich the solid forms and cast shadows of the haystacks in the snow. They stood in a field just to the west of Monet's house in Giverny, where he established his famous water lily gardens. Monet persuaded the local farmer to leave the stacks for the autumn and relatively mild winter of 1890 so that he could paint a series of pictures. He combined work out-of-doors with some in the studio and produced at least 30 paintings of haystacks in different lights. Their lyrical, almost abstract, quality influenced many later artists.
P.S. Haystacks are an important element of Monet's oeuvre; we can explain his painterly genius in just 10 paintings!
P.P.S. If you love Impressionists as much as we do, please check what we have for you in our DailyArt Shop: maybe you fancy a print or a notebook with Monet's masterpiece?