ft in the scene is on the other side of the stack. There is a shadow cast of the back side, making the stacks top dark brown, and the bottom a dark red. The rural scene in the Grainstack (Sunset), as well as the other grainstacks in his series paintings, all basically share many of the same characteristics. The haystacks are never overwhelmed by light. As in the Grainstack (Sunset), the stack holds it own in the painting. The light simply draws attention to the painting to it. The conical top and body of the stack are outlined by the light and make it the focus of the painting. It is very rare for the stacks to be alone. At first glance in the painting they are hard to notice, but when the viewer looks closer at the painting there is a row of farmhouses in the background of the painting. The farmhouse to the farthest right part of the painting is the largest. They decrease in size until the middle house and then begin to get larger again. These farmhouses complete the landscape and give grainstack a place, so it is just not sitting out in an open field with nothing else around it. The farmhouses in the background of the painting represent a lot of what France was. The agriculture at this time was very important to the economy of France. Monet lived in an area that was mainly farm land all around him. The grainstacks were a vital product to the farmers who inhabited these farmhouses. These grainstacks represented the wealth of the farmers and the town, as well as their hopes for the future. The stacks had been carefully constructed, suggesting that the farmers, who built these, obviously took a lot of time and care in getting the stacks up. The grainstacks also show that the fields were fertile for growing and that the land was producing for the farmers (Hayes Tucker, Monet in the 90s, pg. 83-84). The viewer can tell that the farmhouses were also an essential part of the painting. The homes were placed in the same horizontal as the cones...
