Stacks of Wheat

Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer), Claude Monet, 1897, Art Institute of Chicago.

Beginning in 1890, Claude Monet spent one year painting giant stacks of wheat. Here are his journal excerpts from that time (The New Yorker).

May 14, 1890

Saw giant stacks of wheat today. I think I am going to start painting those.

July 9, 1890

Got a little cocky today and tried to put two stacks of wheat in one painting. Total train wreck. The light was going this way and that and—you know what? I don’t even want to talk about it.

Feb 18, 1891

Hey, look, if there are fourteen hundred and forty minutes in a day, I am going to paint fourteen hundred and forty stacks of wheat. End of story. I told my wife that yesterday and she threw a goddam fit. She said, “So if there are eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds in a day, Claude, are you going to paint eighty-six thousand four hundred stacks of wheat?” I responded, “Welcome to the wheat-painting project, Camille!”

March 15, 1891

Starting to wish stacks of wheat didn’t exist and light didn’t exist.

May 10, 1891

Proud to report that I am done painting stacks of wheat—NOT because I am no longer allowed to, according to the Giverny Police Department, but because I have fulfilled my artistic mission vis-à-vis stacks of wheat. Anyway, I’m glad that’s over.