Wheatstacks (End of Summer)

A great stack of harvested wheat stands in a field bathed in the warm, slanting light of late summer, its shadow stretching long across the stubble, the distant hills and sky glowing. Monet painted the humble grainstacks near his home over and over, at every hour and season, to record the constantly changing light. Now in the Art Institute of Chicago, this canvas from the famous series shows his mature obsession: the subject itself almost incidental, the true theme the shifting veil of color and light that transforms an ordinary stack from moment to moment.