Claude Monet was the Impressionist painter known for his series of haystacks and Rouen Cathedral.
These series show Monet’s central interest in changing light and atmosphere. Rather than treating a subject as a single fixed image, he painted the same motif repeatedly under different weather, seasons, and times of day. The haystack paintings were made around 1888–1891 near his home in Giverny, while the Rouen Cathedral series was created in the 1890s.
For the cathedral paintings, Monet worked in Rouen in 1892 and 1893, using temporary rooms across from the building as studios. He later reworked many canvases in his studio. More than thirty paintings resulted, each turning the Gothic façade into a study of colour, haze, sunlight, and shadow rather than merely an architectural record.
The haystacks are sometimes confused with Monet’s later Water Lilies, another extensive series. Gustave Caillebotte, Alfred Sisley, and Camille Pissarro were also important Impressionists, but neither series identifies them. Monet’s serial method became one of the clearest signatures of his mature career.