Claude Monet French 1840-1926 Oil on Canvas

Updated September 23, 2026

Title: Monumental Haystack Beneath a Radiant Sunset Technique: Oil on canvas Measures: 15 x 11 Year: Undated Condition: Good overall condition based on the supplied image. The painted surface appears stable and retains a rich range of saturated colors and visible textural brushwork. No major tears, punctures, extensive paint losses, or severe surface disruptions are apparent in the photograph. Minor surface variations, craquelure, abrasions, handling marks, or age-related characteristics may be present and cannot be fully assessed from the image alone. The work is presented in a decorative blue and gilt frame with a gold-toned inner border; the frame shows minor visible signs of handling and age consistent with display. Provenance: Private collection, Rhode Island. By family repute, the work was inherited with a collection of New England decorative art and paintings assembled during European travels in the 1920s and 1930s. Precise acquisition details were not preserved. Visual Description: This atmospheric landscape centers on a monumental haystack rising from an open field beneath an intensely illuminated sunset sky. Positioned slightly to the right of the central axis, the haystack forms the dominant mass of the composition, its irregular conical silhouette built from overlapping strokes of deep blue, violet, burgundy, brown, rust, and muted orange. Rather than describing the object through precise contour or conventional modeling, the painter constructs its volume through accumulated touches of contrasting pigment, allowing changes in color to communicate the shifting effects of evening light across its surface. Behind the haystack, the sky occupies much of the upper half of the composition and provides its principal source of luminosity. A brilliant concentration of yellow and golden pigment radiates from behind the upper portion of the stack, transitioning outward into warm passages of orange, coral, rose, pink, mauve, violet, and muted blue. The layered application of these colors creates the impression of a sunset at a transitional moment, with the remaining daylight spreading across clouds and atmosphere while the landscape below moves gradually into shadow. A low horizontal band of darker green and blue establishes the distant horizon, separating the radiant sky from the foreground field. The lower portion of the painting is handled in a markedly darker register, with broad passages of green, blue, brown, black, and earthy ochre crossed by isolated strokes of yellow, cobalt, and other brighter pigments. These scattered highlights suggest vegetation and residual reflections of the sunset without resolving the terrain into minute descriptive detail. Near the base of the haystack, passages of pink, red, violet, and green create an especially vivid interaction between the illuminated atmosphere and the darker ground. The haystack casts a substantial dark reflection or shadow-like form downward into the foreground, strengthening the vertical

More lots in this auction

• Gustav Klimt Portrait of a Woman
• Vincent Van Gogh Oil on Canvas Windswept Tree
• Joan Miro Gouache on Paper Abstract Figures
• Pablo Picasso Seated Couple with Guitar
• Salvador Dali Surreal Figure Oil on Canvas
• Joan Miro Gouache on Paper
• Pablo Picasso Gouache on Paper
• Salvador Dali Oil on Canvas Architectural Portrait

See all lots in Modern Masters: Private Collections & Estate Discoveries →