Claude Monet, blind French painter and last of the great Impressionists, recovered his eyesight after a surgical operation at which his oldest friend, Georges Clemenceau, stood at his side to ...

But Monet refused to part with his water lilies project for years. He seemed to leave one corner of a large canvas unfinished just so he could avoid having the paintings removed from his possession.

The paintings were Monet’s soothing gift to a “traumatized France,” said Pierre Georgel, museum curator. Monet and Clemenceau chose the Orangerie as the site for the gallery.

"Monet and Impressionism" opens May 11, 2019 at the Dayton Art Institute and will be on view through Aug. 25, 2019.