How Paintings Depict Time
Various ways that artists have represented the passage of time
Paint is usually thought to be a static medium, capable of depicting only frozen instants of time. Yet with a little inventiveness, it’s possible for paint to represent the passage of time too.
The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet developed a practice of painting in series, choosing a single subject and returning to it over and over again. The benefit of this approach was Monet’s ability to capture different light effects upon the same subject as weather and lighting conditions changed.
A field of haystacks belonging to Monet’s neighbour, a farmer by the name of Monsieur Quéruel, became one such subject. Monet painted 25 versions of these haystacks over the course of a summer, winter and into the following spring of 1890–91. Through these works, the tones and shades alter as the seasons fluctuate, building up a compelling record of this very simple subject matter.
The ever-changing light impelled Monet to establish a daily routine of bringing several canvases to the field and working on whichever half-finished picture most closely resembled the scene at that moment. Monet’s haystack series enables us to witness the duration of time covering three seasons of the Normandy countryside.
