Grainstack in the Sunlight, Snow Effect

On 4 May 1891 the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel opened a show in his Paris gallery built around 15 of Monet's grainstacks, hung together in one room. The stacks themselves stood in a field beside Monet's house at Giverny, and he had spent the winter walking out to them over and over, chasing the light before it moved off them. The pictures sold fast, for sums reaching 1,000 francs, and five days after the opening Durand-Ruel bought this canvas straight from the artist. The snow in it is barely white. Monet built it out of yellows, oranges and cold blue shadow, working at what he called the enveloppe, the air and light wrapped around a thing rather than the thing itself. He signed the lower right corner and dated it 91.