Three spectacular water lily paintings by Claude Monet are to be loaned to the National Gallery as part of the first major exhibition exploring the impressionist passion for decorative arts.
The water lily paintings are among the most popular in the world with the true showstoppers being the series of 22 that Monet donated to the French state in 1922 and which are housed in two oval rooms in the Orangerie museum in Paris.
Those panels cannot ever be loaned. But the London gallery has secured three other examples, including a circular water lily canvas which is a star of the Dallas Museum of Art collection in Texas.