“The more I continue, the more I see that a great deal of work is necessary in order to succeed in rendering what I seek.' 'I am working very hard, struggling with a series of different effects (haystacks), but at this season the sun sets so fast I cannot follow it,” he wrote to critic Gustave Geffroy. Monet was especially interested in the different ways the light hit the haystacks, and raced to capture it before the sun changed positions. Between 18, Monet painted around 30 images of a field of haystacks close to his estate, which became his very first series of paintings. The rich, wild garden wasn’t the only part of Giverny Monet felt compelled to immortalize on canvas. 'Grainstack (Sunset)' by Claude Monet (1891) / Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
