積みわら、雪の効果、日没

The stacks stood in a field beside Monet's house at Giverny and belonged to a neighbouring farmer. They held threshed wheat, packed and thatched to sit out the winter, and they rose 15 to 20 feet.

Through the autumn and winter of 1890 he worked at them with several canvases going at once, swapping them over as the light moved, then carried the lot back into the studio.

In May 1891 the dealer Durand-Ruel hung 15 of the series together in one small room in Paris. They sold within days, at prices that put Monet past worrying about money at 50. This one, with the sun low over snow, went to Chicago with the collection of Bertha and Potter Palmer, who were buying his work about as fast as he could produce it.