Haystacks at sunset, frosty weather

In a field next to his house at Giverny, between the end of summer 1890 and February 1891, Monet painted 25 canvases of the same grain stacks. He thought of them as a set, and this is one of the winter ones. A single huge stack fills the left side, with low hills behind it and a few houses scattered in the distance, all caught in the last light of a winter sunset, in hot oranges, pinks, purples and pale blues. The paint is thick and crusty, and you can still see where he changed his mind. He moved the top of the stack so that it lines up with the ridge of the hills behind. In May 1891 he showed 15 of these grain stacks together at the dealer Durand-Ruel's gallery in Paris, and the critics praised the show almost without exception. This one is lent to the National Gallery by a private collector.