According to Tansey and Kleiner (1996), the Impressionists ôsought to create the illusion of forms bathed in light and atmosphereö (989). So it is with Claude MonetÆs Haystacks at Chailly at Sunrise, an oil on canvas measuring 30 x 60 cm and painted in 1865 (Monet 1865). Landscapes were a common subject of the Impressionists in the latter 19th century. In this particular landscape, the sunrise is used to accentuate a number of haystacks in a field. Compositionally, Monet uses the different sizes of the haystacks and the low-lying clouds to draw the viewerÆs gaze to the vanishing point of the sun rising. Monet uses color to provide a left-leaning horizon to the picture, drawing the viewer to the muted town to the left of the field. As Tansey (et al. 1996) notes, Monet labeled color his ôday-long obsession, joy and tormentö (989).
The color in Haystacks at Chailly are somewhat muted, providing value contrast between the foreground images of the field and haystacks against the rising sun in the horizon. The town to the rear and left of the composition is painted in dark tones, with the haystacks being given just a touch of color to mimic the natural light of the sunrise on them. The dense and muted haystacks lend a certain permanence to the images that provides a more profound image than something as transitory as a sunrise. Unlike some of MonetÆs Impressionist works, the brush strokes used by the artist in Haystacks are more finished. This and the muted colors provide the piece a kind of permanence contrasting the temporal nature of the sunrise. As one critique maintains, ôThis is an important early reference point illustrating the artistic problems Monet worked to resolve as his style developedö (Monet 1865, 1).
Haystacks at Chailly also demonstrates MonetÆs technique of using size to manipulate the viewers gaze. The haystacks are rather large and relative compared to the smaller images of the pain
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