Meules, fin de l'été

In May 1891 Monet hung 15 of these grainstack canvases together at Durand-Ruel's gallery in Paris, and the show sold out inside a few days. It was the first time he had presented a series as a series, one motif tracked through changing light, and it ended years of financial anxiety. The stacks themselves stood in a field a few minutes' walk from his house at Giverny, and they were not his. They belonged to a neighbouring farmer, and Monet had to work fast, before the grain was threshed and the subject was carted off. He kept several canvases going at once and swapped them as the light moved, which is why the series holds together as one campaign of work. This one he signed and dated 91.