Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset)

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1890/91

Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)

The monumental stacks that Claude Monet depicted in his series Stacks of Wheat rose fifteen to twenty feet and stood just outside the artist’s farmhouse at Giverny. Through 1890 and 1891, he worked on this series both in the field, painting simultaneously at several easels, and in the studio, refining pictorial harmonies. In May 1891, Monet hung fifteen of these canvases next to each other in one small room in the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. An unprecedented critical and financial success, the exhibition marked a breakthrough in Monet’s career, as well as in the history of French art. In this view, and in nearly all of the autumn views in the series, the conical tops of the stacks break the horizon and push into the sky. But in most of the winter views, which constitute the core of the series, the stacks seem wrapped by bands of hill and field, as if bedded down for the season. For Monet, the stack was a resonant symbol of sustenance and survival. He followed this group with further series depicting poplars, the facade of Rouen Cathedral, and, later, his own garden at Giverny. The Art Institute has the largest group of Monet’s Stacks of Wheat in the world.

Status: On View, Gallery 243
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset)
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1891
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Claude Monet 91
Dimensions: 64.4 × 92.5 cm (25 3/8 × 36 7/16 in.); Framed: 79.1 × 107 × 5.8 cm (31 1/8 × 42 1/8 × 2 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle
Reference Number: 1983.166
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/100191/manifest.json

Possibly Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, Exposition Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1891), p. 16, cat. 12.
Fine Arts Society, Catalogue: Loan Exhibition, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Society, [1893]), p. 39, cat. 41.
American Art Association, Catalogue of Modern Paintings Belonging to M. Knoedler & Co. Successors to Goupil & Co. to be Sold by Absolute Auction to Settle the Estate of the Late John Knoedler (American Art Association, 1893), p. 32, lot 77, (as The Haystack, Thaw).
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, Exposition of Forty Paintings by Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, 1895), cat. 44.
St. Botolph Club, Boston, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet, exh. cat. (St. Botolph Club, 1895), cat. 11.
Offizieller Katalog der Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung des Vereins bildender Künstler Münchens (E. V.), “Secession” 1900, exh. cat. (F. Bruckmann, [1900]), p. 22, cat. 195.
Karl Voll, “Die Internationale Kunstausstellung 1900 der Münchener Secession,” Die Kunst für Alle: Malerei, Plastik, Graphik, Architektur 15, 21 (Aug. 1, 1900), p. 485.
Possibly Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, Tableaux par Claude Monet, exh. cat. (Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1914), cat. 43.
Musée Royal de Copenhague, Exposition d’art français du XIXe siècle, exh. cat. (Dansk Kunstmuseums Forening, 1914), p. 37, cat. 149.
Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet, sa vie, son temps, son oeuvre (Paris, 1922), opp. p. 240 (ill.).
Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet: En konstnärshistorik (Bonniers, 1948), p. 193, fig. 90.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, Peintures, 1887–1898 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), pp. 38; 142; 143, cat. 1284 (ill.).
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et catalogue raisonné, vol. 4, Peintures, 1899–1926 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1979), p. 79, n. 726 (cat. 1284).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Acquisitions,” Mosaic (July–Aug. 1983), p. 8 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1982-83 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), pp. 5, fig. 6; 12.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Record of Sharing with Chicago’s Masterpiece, annual report supplement (Art Institute of Chicago, [1983]), p. 15 (ill.).
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet (Abrams, 1983), pp. 161 (ill.), 163.
“French Paintings Recently Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago,” Burlington Magazine 76, 976 (July 1984), p. 465, fig. 91.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 11, 1 (Fall 1984), front cover (detail), p. 2.
Richard R. Brettell, “Monet’s Haystacks Reconsidered,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 11, 1 (Fall 1984), pp. 4–5, pl. 1; 6; 7; 12; 16–17, fig. 12 (ill.); 19; 21, n. 6.
Andrea P. A. Belloli, ed., A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), p. 365.
Richard R. Brettell, “The Fields of France,” in A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, ed. Andrea P. A. Belloli, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984), pp. 246; 260–262; 269, no. 110 (ill.).
Richard R. Brettell, “La champagne française,” in Réunion des Musées Nationaux, L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), pp. 261; 278; 282–291, no. 110 (ill.).
Richard R. Brettell, Post-Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago, 1987), pp. 35, 38 (ill.); 118.
Paul Hayes Tucker, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 3; 77; 81; 88, pl. 27; 296, cat. 28.
Martha Kapos, ed., The Impressionists: A Retrospective (Hugh Lauter Levin/Macmillan, 1991), p. 311, pl. 101.
Sylvie Patin, Monet: “Un oeil … mais, bon Dieu, quel oeil!” (Gallimard/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1991), pp. 104 (ill.), 105 (detail), 172. Translated by Anthony Roberts as Monet: The Ultimate Impressionist(Abrams, 1993), pp. 104 (ill.), 105 (detail), 171.
Anne Rorimer, “The Date Paintings of On Kawara,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 17, 2 (1991), p. 122, fig. 2.
John Sallis, “Monet’s Grainstacks: Shades of Time,” Tema Celeste International Art Magazine 30 (Mar.- Apr. 1991), pp. 58 (ill.); 67, n. 13.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures: Dessins; Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), pp. 48, cat. 1284; 200, letters 2833, 2835–2837.
Richard Shiff, “‘Il faut que les yeux soient émus’: Impressionisme et symbolism vers 1891,” Revue de l’art 96 (1992), p. 27, fig. 3.
Andrew Forge, Monet, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago, 1995), pp. 44; 49; 90, pl. 19; 108.
Charles F. Stuckey, with the assistance of Sophia Shaw, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Thames & Hudson, 1995), pp. 121, cat. 100 (ill.); 226; 227; 245.
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, or The Triumph of Impressionism, cat. rais., vol. 1 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 274–75, cat. 1284 (ill.); 275.
Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 3, Nos. 969–1595 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 495, cat. 1284 (ill.); 501.
John Sallis, Shades—Of Painting at the Limit (Indiana University Press, 1998), n. pag., pl. 11; 54–55.
T. J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 76; 110, fig. 57; 111.
Art Institute of Chicago, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills, 2000), pp. 134–35 (ill.).
A. G. Kostenevich, Klod Mone [Claude Monet], exh. cat. (Khudozhnik i Kniga, 2001), pp. 84, cat. 31 (ill.); 85 (detail).
Richard R. Brettell, From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism, vol. 2 (Teaching Co., 2002), pp. 161, 167, 183.
Debra N. Mancoff, Monet: Nature into Art (Publications International, 2003), pp. 11 (ill.), 78–79 (ill.), 128.
Anna Gruetzner Robins, “‘Slabs of Pink and Lumps of Brown’: The Critical Reaction to the Exhibition of a Monet Grainstack Painting in Britain in 1893,” in Monet and French Landscape: Vétheuil and Normandy, ed. Frances Fowle (National Galleries of Scotland, 2006), pp. 159; 168, n. 10.
Charles F. Stuckey, “The Predications and Implications of Monet’s Series,” in The Repeating Image: Multiples in French Painting from David to Matisse, ed. Eik Kahng, exh. cat. (Walters Art Museum/Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 85; 87–88, fig. 5.
Eric M. Zafran, “Monet in America,” in Wildenstein and Co., Claude Monet (1840–1926): A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 2007), p. 104.
Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), pp. 21 (ill.), 22; 103; 108; 156; 159, cat. 80 (ill.). Simultaneously published as Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 21 (ill.), 22; 103; 108; 156; 159, cat. 80 (ill.).
“Cat. 32: Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset), 1890/91” in Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/monet/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135470.
Gloria Groom, et. al. Monet and Chicago, exh. Cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 2020), 33, 96 cat. 53, 137.

Possibly Paris, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Exposition d’oeuvres récentes de Claude Monet, May 1891, cat. 12, as Meule. (Fin du jour.).
New York, Fine Arts Society Building, Loan Exhibition, Feb. 1893, cat. 41, as The Haystack —Thaw. Lent by Mr. M. Knoedler.
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exposition of Forty Paintings by Claude Monet, Jan. 12–27, 1895, cat. 44, as “Meule—Dégel—Soleil couchant.” 1891.
Boston, St. Botolph Club, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet, Feb. 4–16, 1895, cat. 11, as Meule. Le Degel. Soleil couchant. 1891.
Munich, Kunstausstellungsgebäude, Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung: Secession, 1900, cat. 195, as Heuschober. Untergehende Sonne.
Berlin, Paul Cassirer, XI. Jahrgang. VI Ausstellung, Jan. 22–Feb. 22, 1909, cat. 8, as Heuschober bei Sonnenuntergang.
Copenhagen, Musée Royal de Copenhague, Exposition d’art français du XIXe siècle, May 15–June 30, 1914, cat. 149, as Höstak. Solnedgant.—Meule: soleil couchant (1891). Galeries Durand-Ruel.
Possibly Paris, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Tableaux par Claude Monet, Mar. 2–28, 1914, cat. 43, as Meules, soleil couchant. 1891.
Arts Club of Chicago, Paintings by Cl. Monet in Retrospect 1868–1913, Jan. 6–31, 1933, cat. 11.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, June 28–Sept. 16, 1984, cat. 110 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 23, 1984–Jan. 6, 1985; Paris, Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais, as L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, Feb. 4–Apr. 22, 1985 (Los Angeles and Chicago only).
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Monet in the ’90s: The Series Paintings, February 7–April 29, 1990, cat. 28 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, May 19–August 12, 1990; London, Royal Academy of Arts, September 7–December 9, 1990 [Boston and Chicago only].
Art Institute of Chicago, Claude Monet, 1840–1926, July 22–Nov. 26, 1995, cat. 100 (ill.).
Moscow, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Klod Mone [Claude Monet], Nov. 26, 2001–Feb. 21, 2002, cat. 31 (ill.); Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, May 1–15, 2002.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 80 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Monet and Chicago, September 5, 2020-June 14, 2021, cat. 53.

The artist (d. 1926); possibly sold to “Hamman,” the director of Roland Knoedler’s gallery, Paris, as agent for Knoedler and Company, New York, Sept. 1891 [per Wildenstein 1996. According to the Frick Collection’s online “Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America,” Hamman was the director of the Paris gallery]; sold at the Knoedler, New York, sale, Chickering Hall, New York, Apr. 11, 1893, lot 77, to Durand-Ruel, New York, and Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris, in half-shares, for 6,000 francs [per Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1888–93 (no. 1060, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. See also American Art Association 1893: annotated copies of the sale catalogue in the curatorial object file indicate that Durand-Ruel and Boussod et Valadon purchased the painting in half shares, along with two price notations, $1,200 and $1250]; half share sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Sept. 30, 1899 or Nov. 13, 1899 [per Durand-Ruel, New York stock book for 1894–1905 (no. 1060, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant and Durand-Ruel, Paris stock book for 1901–13 (no. 5503, Meules au soleil couchant), both confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; half share sold to Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris, May 27, 1903 [per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 5503, as Meules au soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives,to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. An additional letter from the Durand-Ruel Archives clarifies that the painting became solely owned by Boussod, Valadon et Cie at this time. Additionally, “Le tableau appartient totalement à Boussod et Valadon et est alors sorti de notre stock,” Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy at the Durand-Ruel Archives to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 12, 2002, in curatorial object file]. Rosenberg, Paris, 1903 [per Wildenstein 1996]; sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, Jan. 11, 1908 [this and the following per Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1901–13 (no. 8601, as Meules, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file]; sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, Nov. 11, 1915 or Dec. 9, 1915 [see previous and this and the following per Durand-Ruel, New York stock book for 1904–24 (no. 3899, as Meules, le dégel, soleil couchant), as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives,to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 5, 2013, curatorial object file. The Paris and New York Durand-Ruel stock books record different dates for the sale]; sold to André Weil, Paris, Jan. 9, 1948. Wildenstein, New York and Paris, by 1982 [per Wildenstein 1996 and this and the two following per Rachel Adler to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 27, 2002, e-mail correspondence, in curatorial object file]; sold to Mercedes Eraso de Rodríguez Landaeta, Caracas, Venezuela, by 1982. Rachel Adler Fine Art, New York, by Aug. 1982; sold to James Goodman Gallery, New York, Aug. 1982 [per fax from Patricia H. Tompkins, James Goodman Gallery, to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 21, 2002, copy in curatorial file]; sold to Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York, Feb. 7, 1983 [per telephone conversation between Stephen Hahn and the Art Institute of Chicago, May 14, 2002; notes from the conversation dated June 10, 2002 in curatorial object file]; half share sold to Acquavella Galleries, New York, Feb. 7, 1983 [per telephone conversation between Gail Edmondson, Acquavella Galleries, and the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 16, 1998; notes from conversation in curatorial object file.; and per telephone conversation between Stephen Hahn and the Art Institute of Chicago, May 14, 2002; notes from the conversation dated June 10, 2002 in curatorial object file]; sold to Daniel C. Searle, Winnetka, Ill., Feb. 7, 1983 [per Art Dealers Association of America document, Sept. 26, 1991, in curatorial object file]; given by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle, Winnetka, Ill., to the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning in 1983 [The painting was given to the Art Institute of Chicago in undivided fractional interests beginning in 1983. The Art Institute received the final fractional interest for 100 percent ownership in 1991].

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, cat rais. 1996 1284

Wildenstein, Claude Monet, biographie et catalogue raisonné, 1979 1284

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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