Research Trip: Stitching with Monet at the Art Institute of Chicago

Last summer I began to focus my research of Monet to his repetitions and most specifically his Grainstacks series.  This decision was in part due to my experience of seeing his Meules, fin de l'été at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and how it glowed off the wall in their Impressionist Gallery and stole my attention from everything else.  In this series, it is interesting to see how he has broken up time and rendered the same motif(s) in such numerous iterations.  This idea of an artistic series like this was quiet a novel idea for the time, unlike today where artists fairly regularly will address a similar motif and topic in a series format.  

By choosing a simplified landscape and the fairly simplistic shape of a Grainstack, Monet focused his attention to capturing the color and experience of light and atmosphere and removed narrative as an artistic element.  Removing this narrative was important, as that forced the viewers to be seduced into these snapshots of time, experiencing the subtle changes of light and color of each moment of day and season.  As the field with grainstacks was located right behind his house in Giverny, it was easily accessible and very familiar to Monet, allowing the subtle details of the changing light to be evident to him. 

In the Art Institute:

On Wednesday, after my time in the Textiles Collection, I visited the Impressionists Gallery to view the 5 Grainstacks that they have on public view.  I had arranged with the European Painting department to have time to stitch before the museum opened on Thursday and Friday so this time on Wednesday afternoon allowed for some preparatory observation of color and photographing the paintings.  

I chose to focus on studying Monet's Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset),1890/91, (Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle, 1983.166).  Why this one you may be wondering?  Honestly I chose to focus on this one as it had 1 grainstack, a fairly abstracted background and colors that I found both interesting and challenging.  There was a nice mix of smooth gradation in the sky with more textural optical mixing in the ground. 

 

 Materials: 

I contemplated a number of different approaches to this.  I landed on 18 count monocanvas with cotton embroidery floss.  I chose specifically to use cotton embroidery flosses (from Weeks Dye Works and Valdani) as they have a fairly dull sheen or matte finish.  Monet and most of the Impressionists chose not to varnish their paintings so their paintings do not have a glossy finish to them and are fairly matte in appearance.  I thought since he made that conscience sheen decision that it was important to match it with a thread that also had a matte finish to it.  

I have also deliberately decided to utilize all variegated thread colors.  This was a decision that was the result of all the square samples I have stitched the past few years.  Solid colors do not blend as well together and can many times result in a stripey appearance.  The variegated colors blend beautifully together and create a more painterly result.  It is also a good challenge that I cannot fully control where the variegation lands on the piece so there is a natural spontaneity and looseness that results. 

Just a side note on the floss:  The Weeks Dye Works cottons have a really beautiful sheen to them, almost like a semi-gloss.  The Valdani cottons are very matte.  I am assuming there is a difference in finishing processing, though I have absolutely no clue - just my guess.  Why is this important?  Well, it makes a difference when mixing your colors and it makes a difference within the composition.  The shinier flosses come forward visually and can jump up in dominance within both the thread mixture and overall composition.  If you are cognizant of it, you can use this to your advantage when stitching pieces. Sometimes the shine can make a thread read lighter than it actually is and sometimes it can reflect the surrounding colors. 

Now to the Stitching!:

 On the first day of stitching, I focused primarily on getting the colors to match.  After photographing the painting and creating a number of different sketches that recorded notes on composition and brush stroke direction, I started mixing my threads.  I only had 1.5 hrs. each morning before the museum opened to stitch so I had to be very deliberate about my time.  The Art Institute of Chicago has an amazing online publication on their Monet collection, Monet: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I knew that the hardest aspect to do from a distance would be to match the colors as digital and printed colors are never the same as what they are in person with the actual painting.  Brushstroke direction and overall composition were something that I could reference from their online publication.  Color was the trickiest part and therefore had to command the use of my time.

I decided to stitch the color mixtures like paint swatches instead of my normal grid of squares. The "paint swatches" are created with 8-9 strands mixed together.  I have recorded each color recipe on a matching map in my sketchbook (it looks a little bit like a crazy mind map!).  Each color mixture is stitched twice--once with cross-hatched or overlapping stitches and once with a smooth diagonal satin stitch.  I thought it was important to record and compare the same thread combination with different textures.  It is very interesting to me the difference that just the stitch direction and type makes on the perceived color.  It's not dramatic but it is a noticeable difference and one that needs intentional observation.  On Day 1, I focused on the colors in the sky and on Day 2, I focused on the colors in the grainstack.  These were the two areas that were the hardest to see "true to color" in photographs or from digital or print resources.  They were also the anchor areas in that the sky had the highest value colors and the haystack had the lowest value colors in the composition.

On Day 2, I used the last part of my time to stitch quick directional stitches that matched Monet's brushstroke directions.  I did these stitches in the highlight or key colors of each section.  On the canvas, I am using two different techniques.  The paint swatches are 8-9 strands mixed together in the needle.  The stitching on the composition is stitched with 1 strand at a time but utilizing the same mixture of colors that are in the paint swatches.  I intend to stitch this composition both ways to compare the finished results both for final appearance and speed.  

Overall, the experience of stitching a Monet while looking at the actual painting was an unimaginable treat.  While talking to my Dad on the phone while walking back to my hotel, he asked me what made the Monet's so special.  All I could say is that it couldn't be verbalized.  You have to see a Monet to understand.  The most beautifully printed books still pale in comparison.  The greatest digital resource still feels flat.  But standing in the middle of a gallery with 5 Stacks of Grain, a few scenes from London (Charing Cross Bridge, Houses of Parliament), a couple scenes from Vétheuil, and a few Waterlilies, that experience cannot be distilled into a few sentences or descriptive words. 

Many, many thanks to Devon from the European Painting department for arranging this stitching time up for me and to Isaac in the Textiles department for connecting me with Devon and arranging the time in the Textiles collection. 

Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset), 1890/91, Claude Monet, Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle, 1983.166.

Selection of Resources and Further Reading:

Brettell, Richard R. "Monet's Haystacks Reconsidered." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 11.1 (1984): 4-21. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web.

Callen, Anthea. Techniques of the Impressionists. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell, 1982. Print. 

Holmes, Caroline. Monet at Giverny. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Garden Art, 2011. Print.

Shaw, Jill. "Cats. 27–33. Stacks of Wheat, 1890/91." Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago, n.d. Web. May-June 2016.

Schaefer, Iris, Caroline Von. Saint-George, and Katja Lewerentz. Painting Light: The Hidden Techniques of the Impressionists. Milano: Skira, 2009. Print. 

Smith, Paul. Impressionism: Beneath the Surface. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Print.

Thomson, Belinda. Impressionism: Origins, Practice, Reception. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2000. Print.

Wildenstein, Daniel. Monet, the Triumph of Impressionism. Köln: Taschen, 2015. Print.