Grainstack in the Sunlight, Snow Effect

The artwork

In May 1891 this grainstack was number 15 in an exhibition where Monet hung fifteen paintings of the same subject in the same room, and his dealer bought it while the show was still open. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• A single grainstack in the snow, with the yellow and orange reflections of the winter sun.
• Cold light and warm colours, to brighten a wall.
• A gift for anyone who loves the countryside in winter.

The grainstacks stood in the fields around Monet's house at Giverny, the village in Normandy where he lived. He painted them in the light of every hour and every season, first outdoors and then in the studio. It was his first true series: paintings meant to hang side by side, because together they showed how light transforms the same subject.

So, in May 1891, the Paris gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, the dealer who sold the Impressionists' paintings, showed fifteen of them in the same room: a new way of presenting Monet's work. On 9 May, while the exhibition was open, Durand-Ruel bought this one directly from him.

Monet cared little about the grainstack itself. A few years later he said that the subject was insignificant to him: what he wanted to paint was what lies between the subject and himself, that is, the air and light that surround it.

The original is in the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, near Berlin, in the collection of the German entrepreneur Hasso Plattner.

In a bright kitchen or a country house it brings the low sun of a snowy day. It is a gift for anyone who loves clear winters.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass