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How did Georges Clemenceau encourage Claude Monet’s Water Lilies project?

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Painting by Claude Monet, Self-portrait in Beret, 1886, showing Monet with a full beard, dark beret, and coat against a light, textured background. — Claude Monet *Self-Portrait with a Beret*, oil on canvas by Claude Monet, 1886; in a private collection.

In 1914, Georges Clemenceau, who was a close friend of Claude Monet and an ardent supporter of the Impressionists, persuaded the artist to embark upon the Water Lilies project.12

Following this encouragement, Monet spent the next decade working obsessively on the series in a vast studio specifically constructed to house the large canvases. This project ultimately resulted in the creation of eight monumental compositions that were presented to the French government and installed in the Orangerie museum.12