Monet masterpiece on the way to Geelong

AN exceptional piece of Claude Monet’s collection has been loaned to the Geelong Gallery, giving local art lovers the chance to see world famous work up close and personal.

Monet’s Meules, milieu du jour (Haystacks, midday) painting from 1890 will be on display courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria.

The extraordinary work arrives as part of the National Gallery’s Sharing the National Collection initiative, enabling audiences across regional Australia to experience major works.

The presentation of Monet’s Haystacks midday is inspired by the artist purchasing his home at Giverny in 1890, where he began the celebrated Haystacks series.

These stacks of wheat, tightly thatched for protection against the weather, stood in a fiueld behind the artist’s home.

From the late summer of 1890 until winter 1891, Claude Monet would paint these haystacks at least 25 times.

It was the changing effects of light on the haystacks that fascinated him the most.

Geelong Gallery director and chief executive officer Humphrey Clegg said the opportunity to view this work offered local audiences an encounter with one of art history’s most influential painters.

‘Impressionism has played a major role in the history of Geelong Gallery.

“Our community founded the Gallery’s Collection through the purchase of a much-loved and now nationally significant Australian Impressionist painting, Frederick McCubbin’s A bush burial 1890.

“As we celebrate our 130th anniversary in 2026, we are delighted to be able to loan Claude Monet’s famous Meules, milieu du jour 1890 to inspire the Geelong community in the same way the French Impressionists inspired their Australian counterparts more than a century ago.

“I encourage all Victorians to come and see this iconic work.”

Haystacks, midday will be on display at Geelong Gallery from today (Friday, November 21) for two years.