Grainstack (Sunset)

Grainstack (Sunset) is among the most dramatically lit of the Grainstacks series, painted as the sun sets low behind or beside the stacks, flooding them in intense copper and orange light that transforms the familiar forms into glowing mass. The sunset canvases of the series were among the most commercially successful when exhibited in 1891; Pissarro's daughter-in-law recalled the opening crowd exclaiming before them. The American collectors who bought most heavily from this exhibition were attracted precisely by these most atmospheric and colourful variants of the series.

The low sunset light creates the painting's dominant warm chromatic key — deep orange, copper, crimson — with the sky behind the stack carrying complementary cool tones of blue and violet. The stack itself is reduced to a glowing mass with minimal surface detail, its form established by the contrast of its warm lit face against the darker surroundings.