The painting was displayed at a group exhibition in 1874 and was mocked by Louis Leroy, a contemporary journalist, in his article entitled ‘Exhibition of the Impressionists’, after which the name stuck.
Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840. By the age of 15, his caricature drawings had gained local reputation, and by 17, Monet was painting full-blown landscapes, which he continued to do so all his life.
Some key characteristics of the Impressionism Movement were loose and thick brushstrokes, use of bold colors with little or no blending, emphasis on natural light, and painting in plein (open) air or outdoors. Nonetheless, each Impressionist artist had their own unique styles and worked in several mediums. Something different that Monet brought to this radical movement was painting in series, one of which was his series on haystacks.
Even though the subjects of the paintings are haystacks that were located near Monet’s home in Giverny in France, these mundane stacks are not the primary focuses of the paintings. Monet’s interest and goal, not only for this particular series but as an artist, was to capture the fleeting impressions of light and atmosphere, and the same goes for the haystack series, too.
Working outdoors, he painted on multiple canvases simultaneously. According to the time of the day and the perception of light, Monet would shift from one painting to another in order to match them with the existing transient atmospheric conditions. His haystack paintings range from cool to warm colors, the shadows of the stacks vary in sizes and fall in different places, the colors of the sky, the field and the haystacks are full of complementary colors, such as orange and blue or pink and green.
A total of 25 paintings are attributed to the Haystack Series which the artist began in the autumn of 1890 and continued till mid-1891. The Haystacks were Monet’s first major series of paintings, which were later followed by poplar trees, the Rouen Cathedral, and water lilies.