Monet’s Haystacks aren’t really about hay — they’re about time

[u/tomgurney]

When people first see Monet’s Haystacks, they often assume he was just painting the same rural subject over and over again.

But what’s fascinating is that the haystack itself is almost irrelevant. What Monet was really studying was how light changes over time — sometimes minute by minute.

He initially thought he could capture this with just a couple of canvases (one for sunlight, one for overcast), but quickly realised the conditions shifted too quickly. That’s when the idea of painting an entire *series* really took hold.

In a way, these works feel like an early attempt to capture time passing — something that later artists would push much further.

Curious what others think — do you see these as landscapes, or something closer to studies of light and perception?