Stacks of Wheat

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

1891

Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926

Of all the motifs that preoccupied Monet in his exploration of changing light effects, grain stacks are among the most iconic. He captured them at various times of the year and at different moments of the day. When these works were shown in an 1891 exhibition, they were widely praised by his peers. One critic, Octave Mirbeau, wrote that the works conveyed “the drama of the earth.” Since Monet rarely made drawings, this sheet may have been a potential illustration for Mirbeau’s article. The softness of the chalk avoids harsh contours and, in turn, better mimics the artist’s painting technique.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Claude Monet
Title: Stacks of Wheat
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.: Made 1891
Medium: Black chalk on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower left, in black chalk: Claude Monet
Dimensions: Primary/secondary supports: 18.2 × 25.4 cm (7 3/16 × 10 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.986
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/186316/manifest.json

Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures: Dessins; Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), p. 130, D444bis (ill.).
“Cat. 33: Stacks of Wheat,” 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.

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, pp. 134-135, cat. 94 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection”, March 15 - June 15, 2014.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Monet and Chicago,” Sept. 5, 2020-June 14, 2021.

Private collector, Pennsylvania, to May 1991 [Wildenstein 1991]; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, May 8, 1991, lot 101, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

Wildenstein D444bis

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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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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.

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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.