Stacks of Wheat
1891
Medium
Black chalk on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Primary/secondary supports: 18.2 × 25.4 cm (7 3/16 × 10 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
186316
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 softn...
About the Artist
Claude Monet · 1840–1926
Claude Monet, born Oscar-Claude Monet on November 14, 1840, in Paris and raised in Le Havre, Normandy, began his artistic journey as a successful teenage caricaturist. His formal training started at the Le Havre secondary school of the arts in 1851, where he received his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard. Around 1858, he met Eugène Boudin, who became his pivotal mentor, introducin...