Haystacks, end of Summer

Haystacks, End of Summer (1891) at the Musée d'Orsay is the only Haystacks variant in the premier French national collection and is among the most formally complete of the entire series. Painted at the moment when the harvest stacks had reached their maximum size before removal, the 'end of summer' variants occupy an emotionally resonant transitional moment between summer abundance and autumn's decline. The warm afternoon light, long shadows, and haze of late summer create conditions Monet regarded as the richest in the entire series. Pisarro, visiting Monet at Giverny during the Haystacks campaign, was overwhelmed by the series' originality.

The haystack's warm ochre-orange is complemented by cool blue-green shadows on the ground and a warm haze-filtered sky. Long shadows indicate late afternoon light. Monet's surface treatment is richly impasted in the lit zones, the complementary colors of stack and shadow creating strong optical vibration at reading distance.