Meules (Haystacks)

French painter Claude Monet painted this Meules (Haystacks) in 1890 as part of a 25-painting series exploring how light transforms the same subject across different times of day and seasons. This canvas captures grain stacks at sunset near his home in Giverny, their forms ablaze in reds, oranges, and vibrant greens as diagonal beams of light rake across the French countryside.

The Haystacks series marked a turning point in Monet's career and Impressionism itself. By painting the same subject repeatedly, Monet pioneered the concept of series painting, showing how fleeting atmospheric effects could be the true subject of art. He worked outdoors to capture immediate impressions, then refined his canvases in the studio using layered pigments.

Chicago collector Bertha Honoré Palmer acquired this canvas from dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in 1892, just one year after Monet's Paris exhibition. It remained in her family until 1986, when it sold for $2.53 million. At Sotheby's in 2019, it brought $110.7 million, setting the record for any Impressionist work.