Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn)

Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn) from 1890 at the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the core canvases from the Haystacks campaign — the autumn end-of-day subject representing the seasonal and temporal condition Monet found richest in the series. The low October sun creates long shadows on the ground and warm amber light on the stack faces, while the sky above the grain store is already beginning to darken toward the deep blue of approaching evening. Working simultaneously on multiple canvases — moving between them as each matched the passing conditions — Monet was capturing the same transitional atmospheric moment from the same viewpoint across weeks of painting sessions, gradually building the series' comprehensive account of time passing. The Art Institute holds twelve Haystacks canvases, and this autumn end-of-day variant is among the most formally resolved, the warm-cool contrast of lit face against shadowed ground creating the complementary color vibration that made the series an immediate critical success in 1891. Pissarro praised specifically the end-of-day autumn variants as the series' most emotionally complete works.

The low afternoon sun models the stacks with a strong warm-cool contrast: lit faces in orange and copper, shadow sides in mauve and blue. Long shadows on the ground create a directional structure across the lower portion of the canvas. The sky is relatively simply handled, deferring to the interaction of light and form below.