One of Monet's paintings from the "Haystacks" series

The first paintings of the series were begun in late September or early October 1890, and Monet went on working on them for about seven months. They made Monet the first painter to produce so many images of one and the same subject, differing in light, weather, atmosphere and perspective.

Every day he rose at about 3.30 in the morning and set off with his easel and paints to the field. He wrote to the critic Gustave Geffroy:

"I am struggling with a series of different effects on the haystacks, but at this time of year the sun sets so quickly that I cannot keep up with it."

The series was the first group of multiple versions of a single theme that he exhibited: in 1891 fifteen canvases were shown at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris.

In May 2019 one of the paintings from the series sold for 110 million dollars, setting a record for Monet and becoming the first Impressionist work to pass the 100 million dollar mark at auction.