_Claude Monet _
By: Marie
Claude Monet: Grainstack (Sunset) Claude Monets Grainstack (Sunset) is the
painting I chose from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Monet was an
impressionist painter in France, and did most of his work at his home at
Giverny. Impressionism got is name from a painting that Monet painted,
Impression Sunrise. Impressionist paintings are put into a category based on
characteristics such as light that draws attention to objects, rough textures,
and visual pleasure that the viewer receives upon looking at the paintings.
Impressionist paintings are art for arts sake and focus on leisure and nature.
These paintings are generally the most well known and popular paintings
because of their attractive appearance The Grainstack (Sunset) was painted
between 1890 and 1891, and is a part of Monets first true series paintings.
During the time of this series Kennedy 2 was painted, there was a
lot of unrest going on in Europe. Many of the major cities were experiencing
industrial growth, and it was causing the people to suffer from a magnitude of
social problems. There were high rates of suicide, and anarchist groups. Over
the years to follow, 1889 to 1894, there were at least 600 strikes involving
120,000 workers. There were bombings, raids, and wide spread fear across the
country. It was during this time period that Monet was going to establish
himself as one of the major painters of the country As the viewer looks at
this painting, they are taken into a rural scene. You notice first the
grainstack as the major object in the painting. As you move around the
painting, there are many striking areas of light. The sunset causes a
brilliant display of colors around the scene. The sky is fading in the
background as the sun sunsets. There is a small amount of blue still hanging
in the sky, and under that a large portion of a yellow hue from the sun
setting. As the suns sets further it cause a pink color above the land. The
sunset has cause the grainstacks color to darken. You can see that the light
left in the scene is on the other side of the stack. There is a shadow cast of
the back side, making the stacks top dark brown, and the bottom a dark red
Kennedy 3 The rural scene in the Grainstack (Sunset), as well as the
other grainstacks in his series paintings, all basically share many of the
same characteristics. The haystacks are never overwhelmed by light. As in the
Grainstack (Sunset), the stack holds it own in the painting. The light simply
draws attention to the painting to it. The conical top and body of the stack
are outlined by the light and make it the focus of the painting. It is very
rare for the stacks to be alone. At first glance in the painting they are hard
to notice, but when the viewer looks closer at the painting there is a row of
farmhouses in the background of the painting. The farmhouse to the farthest
right part of the painting is the largest. They decrease in size until the
middle house and then begin to get larger again. These farmhouses complete the
landscape and give grainstack a place, so it is just not sitting out in an
open field with nothing else around it The farmhouses in the background of
the painting represent a lot of what France was. The agriculture at this time
was very important to the economy of France. Monet lived in an area that was
mainly farm land all around him. The grainstacks were a vital product to the
farmers who inhabited these farmhouses. These grainstacks represented the
wealth of the farmers and the town, as well as their hopes for the future. The
stacks had Kennedy 4 been carefully constructed, suggesting that the
farmers, who built these, obviously took a lot of time and care in getting the
stacks up. The grainstacks also show that the fields were fertile for growing
and that the land was producing for the farmers (Hayes Tucker, Monet in the
90s, pg. 83-84). The viewer can tell that the farmhouses were also an
essential part of the painting. The homes were placed in the same horizontal
as the cones of the stacks. They provide themselves with enough magnitude to
hold themselves against the larger figures. There is an enormous difference
between Monets depiction of farm living and the work the farmers did, and the
Realists depiction how life was. Monet gave a picture of hard-working people,
who tended to their land with great detail and hard work. The Realists on the
other hand had a tendency to make life appear a little better than what it
really was The Grainstack (Sunset) is a highly geometric painting. The
grainstack has a conical top and the bottom that supports it is a
parallelogram. Many of the objects in the painting run parallel with the rest
of the painting. The horizon where the sun is setting runs parallel with the
mountain or hilly area in the background of the painting. The farmhouses also
run parallel with this, but also with the center of the grainstack, and the
Kennedy 5 fields below it. The farmhouses roofs all run diagonally
with each other as well as with the roof of the stack (Hayes Tucker, Monet in
the 90s, pg. 77). Each item of the painting has something that it relates to
in a geometrical way. Even though the shapes may see uniform in description,
the grainstacks and farmhouse have their own identities. When looking at
several grainstacks each one has its own individual characteristics.
Physically some of them may be smaller with larger conical tops, or exactly
the opposite. Nature also plays a role in their particular appearance. Some of
the grainstacks are covered in snow, are shown at sunrise, or they have a
combination of effects. Monet had an ability to make them stand out from each
other and make them extremely different When the viewer is looking at the
painting, there are a few details that draw you into the painting. First, is
the low view point of the painting. As a person stands viewing the painting
they are lower than everything in it. It appears that the grainstack is on a
bit of an incline, and the viewer is at the bottom of a small hill. From the
bottom of the hill you can see all of the grainstack, the land behind it,
farmhouses, and all the scenery behind that. The view however, stops on the
right side of the grainstack. From the low viewpoint it appears that the
grainstack blocks your view except for on the Kennedy 6 left side.
In the painting there is an expansive view of the sky. The top of the
grainstack only takes up a portion of the painting even though it appears to
be the largest part of the painting. The viewer gets a view of the bright
colors in the sky that light up Monets work There is a division between the
two halves of the painting. The right side of the painting is also darker
because the sun has already set on that part. The colors almost keep you to
that one side so there is focus on just the grainstack. The shadow cast
beneath the stack, dulls the colors in a diagonal pattern to the corner of the
painting. The left side of the painting is much brighter and inviting. The sun
has not completely yet, so there is an array and mixture of color. From the
field, to the mountains, to the sky, attention is focused on this half of the
painting. This side is more inviting and warm to the viewer There were a few
factors that influenced Monet during this time when he was painting the
Grainstack Series. He was the new owner of his house at Giverny, and he was
spending a lot of time outdoors at his home. He was able to spend more time
than usual outside because of the mild winters they were experiencing. The
temperature was rarely dropping below twenty degrees, and snow was only
falling enough to lightly cover the ground for a Kennedy 7 short
while. This was enabling Monet to be outside at really paint what he was
seeing first hand, and with out memory. However, one of the major problems was
that he was painting in the outdoors. The appearance of the sky, whether or
not the sun is rising or setting, gave Monet a limited amount of time before
the moment he was painting was gone. This forced him to sometimes put the work
away and continue it when the light was similar (Hayes Tucker, Monet in the
90s, pg. 77). When researching art works more carefully, there is a lot to be
learned. Looking into a painting and finding out what is behind it makes the
work a lot more interesting. Monets grainstacks have not only taught me about
him as a painter and why he painted as he did, but also about France and what
was going on during this period. His works are a beautiful representation of
what life was like, and what Monet was experiencing right in his own backyard.
_Bibliography _
Bibliography Hayes Tucker, Paul. Monet in the 90s: Series Paintings. Boston
Museum of Fine Arts; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Hayes Tucker,
Paul. Monet in the Twentieth Century. Boston Museum of Fine Arts; New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1998. Frascina, Francis. Modernity and Modernism:
French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1993. Gerdts, William H. Monets Giverny: An Impressionists Colony. New York:
Abbeville Press, 1993. Copplestone, Trewin. The History and Techniques of the
Great Masters: Monet. New Jersey: Chartwell Books, 1987. Tomkins, Calvin.
Monets Illusion. Vanity Fair. July 1995, Vol. 58 Issue 7: pg. 96-102.
Hurwitz, Laurie S. The Well Planned Spontaneity of Claude Monet. American
Artist. March 1996, Vol. 60 Issue 644: pg. 56-64.
Word Count: 1546
| 
