Did you know Claude wasn't the only Monet? His younger brother Leon's faithful support of his older brother is partly why Claude became the man we know today.

The Brothers Monet and their relationship are on full display at a new exhibit at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. Curator Geraldine Lefebvre took three years to amass the collection of paintings and records of Leon's activities, and what takes shape shows a "lynchpin" in Claude's superstardom.

"One tends to think of Monet making it all by himself, but he relied on a network of collectors, supporters, dealers. Leon seems to be almost like a lynchpin who has been somehow overlooked and rediscovered through the exhibition," Frances Fowle, senior curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, told Euronews.

Leon was part of this network, and he supported his brother early on by buying his paintings at auction to drum up interest, as well as introducing him to new kinds of synthetic dyes.

He kept some of his brother's paintings, but others he gave back so he could create more publicity.

Leon must have enjoyed the role, as he met and grew into a businessman alongside not only Monet, but other Impressionists whom Claude was friends with, like Pissaro, Renior, and Sisley, whose paintings Leon also bought. Monet the Younger became a well-to-do owner of a chemicals factory.

Claude's son Jean worked at Leon's factory, and that was the first snowfall of the winter of their discontent, as Jean contracted a respiratory infection and died. Claude blamed Leon for Jean's death, and at his 1914 funeral, Leon Monet's side of the family wasn't invited.

This was made all the worse by the death of Claude's daughter Adrienne from similar causes.

Leon was in denial of the chemicals' role in their deaths, and shortly after Adrienne passed, they exchanged final angry words and never spoke again.

Perhaps though, the Brothers Monet were made of stiffer stuff than most, because after Leon died just 3 years later at the ripe old age of 82, Claude lamented.

"I regret not being able to see my brother one last time, and tell him to forget everything that took us apart," he wrote to his widow.

Chief among the showpieces is a large and lively portrait of Leon Monet painted by Claude during the year the former made his debut as an industrialist in Rouen. Leon didn't like it—felt it was unfinished, but Claude's friends Renoir and Sisley convinced Claude to leave it as it was. Leon hid it away all his life.

The exhibit, which runs until July 16th, also includes a variety of family photographs, records, woodblocks, and other materials that each tell a small part of the story of the Brothers Monet, and the exhibit itself may help one or two disgruntled siblings understand that blood (and paint) is thicker than water, and that the time to make amends should be sooner rather than (too) later.

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