Stunning Monet exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago

Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1906; the Impressionist movement was named after one of Monet's paintings - Impression, Sunrise

Venice, Palazza Dario, Claude Monet, 1908; in 1895 the Art Institute gave Monet his first solo museum show in the United States, 20 Works by Claude Monet

Cliffwalk at Pourville, Claude Monet, 1882; the Art Institute, in 1903, became the first American museum to purchase a Monet painting with its acquisition of Bad Weather, Pourville

Etretat: The Beach and the Falaise D'Amont, Claude Monet, 1885; this special Monet exhibition unites more than 70 works from both the Art Institute’s collection and private holdings

Boats Lying at Low Tide at Fecamp, Claude Monet, 1881; the exhibition is limited to only 25% of capacity according to coronavirus guidelines from the city with the run scheduled until January 18, 2021

Apples and Grapes, Claude Monet, 1880; more than a million visitors attended the Monet retrospective at the Art Institute in 1995

The Parc Monceau, Claude Monet, 1878; thanks in large part to Chicago’s wealthy collecting class, the Art Institute now houses 33 paintings and 13 drawings by the artist—the largest trove of his works outside of Paris

The Artist's House in Argenteuil, Claude Monet, 1873; Monet was born just two days after fellow painter and sculptor, Auguste Rodin and the two would become lifelong friends

The Seine at Bougival, Claude Monet, 1869; the Monet exhibit required a timed ticket (reservations were sold out most days) but only cost an extra $7 above regular museum admission

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, Claude Monet, 1867; when Monet’s paintings first appeared alongside his contemporaries in a Chicago gallery in 1888, he was singled out for praise by the press

On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, Claude Monet, 1868; four works by Monet were featured in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago

Water Lily Pond, Claude Monet, 1901; the artist painted 250+ canvases with his beloved water lilies (he even paid his gardener to row out and dust them off before he started painting!)

Irises, Claude Monet, 1914; unlike other artists of his time, Monet would paint a work entirely, from start to finish, outdoors

Houses of Parliament, London, Claude Monet, 1901; the largest collection of Monet's works can be seen at the Musee Marmottan in Paris with the Musee d'Orsay also having a great selection

Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1905; by the time Monet was 15, he was a successful caricaturist with some of these drawings included in the exhibit

Poppy Field (Giverny), Claude Monet, 1891; after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Monet and his family sought refuge in England where he studied the works of Constable and Turner

Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn), Claude Monet, 1891; a different painting from this series sold for $110.7 million in 2019, making it the most expensive Impressionist artwork ever to be bought at auction

Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect), Claude Monet, 1891; in 1891, Chicagoans Bertha and Potter Palmer acquired some 20 paintings by Monet—including several from the Stacks of Wheat series—a fraction of the 90 canvases they would come to own

Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1904; today half a million visitors annually pay homage to Monet's gardens at his home in Giverny, France to see where he created so many of his iconic works

Vase of Dahlias, Claude Monet, 1883; I visited Chicago many times for marathons, triathlons and tennis tournaments but for some reason had never visited this fantastic museum

The Cliff at Varengeville, Claude Monet, 1882; when Monet was 5 years old his family moved to a seaside area near Le Havre — a move which would shape his artistic life to come

Landscape with Figures, Giverny, Claude Monet, 1888; the Art Institute of Chicago in Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest (and best!) art museums in the United States

Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, Claude Monet, 1877; in 1868, an impoverished Monet faced severe depression and attempted to kill himself by jumping off a bridge into the Seine

Pheasants, Woodcocks, and Partridge, Claude Monet, 1879; in later life Monet developed cataracts which affected his ability to see the full color spectrum and he became legally blind in 1922 but continued painting