Haycocks and Sun. Norman Garstin (1847–1926). c. 1886. Oil on wood. H 20.3 x W 27 cm. Collection: Tate; accession no. T03163; presented by the Contemporary Art Society in 1980. Kindly made available on the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives licence (CC BY-ND) licence.
The gallery label of 2004 identifies this as a "plein air" painting, and Garstin is known to have painted outside in all weathers, and at all seasons. As the label says, "this captures the immediate sensations of the warm glow of late summer twilight." Garstin was also well up in the artistic developments of the day — for example he wrote on Manet for the Art Journal of 1884. But if the date given to this work is at all accurate, it is doubtful whether he could have yet seen Monet's early pictures of haystacks, from 1888-89, let alone his later, famous series of 1890-91 (see the chronology in Wildenstein et. al., late fall, 1888 onwards, 155-56). — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Baskervyle-Glegg, Diana. "Garstin, Norman (1847–1926), landscape and genre painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Web. 31 March 2021.
Garstin, Norman. "Édouard Manet." Art Journal (1884). Internet Archive. Contributed by the Getty Research Institute. Web. 31 March 2021. [Note: the article is signed Norman Garstein, but is identified as Garstin's by Diana Baskervyle-Glegg (see above).
"Norman Garstin: Haycocks and Sun." Tate. Web. 31 March 2021.
Wildenstein, Daniel, et.al. Monet's Years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978.
31 March 2021