Monet’s paintings of haystacks were among the boldest of his career. In the early
1890s he made a series of 25 pictures, each showing massive stacks of grain under
a variety of light and weather conditions. Here they are seen against snow and
sunshine, their bulky forms casting bright blue shadows. The intense colors and
almost abstract pattern that they make fascinated Monet. But the picture’s real
subject is the atmosphere itself – a freezing mist that positively glows with
light.
