Beginning in 1890, Claude Monet spent one year painting giant stacks of wheat. Here is his journal from that time.
May 14, 1890
Saw giant stacks of wheat today. I think I am going to start painting those.
June 8, 1890
Having a tough time painting these giant stacks of wheat. I guess I assumed I’d blow through them no problem because they’re just giant stacks of wheat and I’m a professional painter, but getting all the wheat to look good is tough.
June 30, 1890
Painted a decent stack of wheat today. Going to call it, “Wheatstack in the Sunlight, Morning Effect.” Something like that.
Confession: I hated literally everything about painting that stack of wheat, especially how the light bounced off it. But here’s the thing: I have to paint the light right. People go apeshit about the light and how accurate the light is. They ask annoying questions like, “Are the shadows accurate based on the light?” And I always think to myself, “Who gives a fuck? It’s a painting of a red boat and it looks like a million bucks.”
July 9, 1890
Got a little cocky today and tried to put two stacks of wheat in one painting. Total train wreck. The light was going this way and that and—you know what? I don’t even want to talk about it.
September 21, 1890
I was going to take the day off, but then I looked at the calendar and flipped out because I had wanted to paint what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of summer in afternoon light. I must have completely blanked on what day it was, so I had to book it down to the farm. Got that wheatstack on the canvas toot sweet. But now that I’ve painted what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of summer, I guess I have to paint what a stack of wheat looks like at the end of fall. And if I do fall, I have to do end of winter. And then the end of spring. Crap.
December 2, 1890
If I can’t paint these things with snow on the tops of them, I’ll have failed as an artist and as a man. What does a stack of wheat look like with snow on it in the morning? In the afternoon? At dusk? What does a stack of wheat look like with frost on it? What does a stack of wheat look like when the sun is not setting, but almost setting? What does a stack of wheat look like at 2:43 P.M. on a Monday, 2:43 P.M. on Tuesday, 2:43 P.M. on a Wednesday, 2: 43 P.M. on a—you get the idea.
Jan 1, 1891
Happy New Year! Painted seven hundred and fifty-five stacks of wheat today.
Feb 18, 1891
Hey, look, if there are fourteen hundred and forty minutes in a day, I am going to paint fourteen hundred and forty stacks of wheat. End of story. I told my wife that yesterday and she threw a goddam fit. She said, “So if there are eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds in a day, Claude, are you going to paint eighty-six thousand four hundred stacks of wheat?” I responded, “Welcome to the wheat-painting project, Camille!”
