The Dyke Collection in Giverny

Just a short walk down the road from Claude Monet’s famous house and gardens in Giverny, the Musée des Impressionnismes is a discreet modern building with its own lovely gardens, a series of flower-filled squares boxed in by tall hedges on either side of a central pathway. It’s a perfect setting for the current show, De Delacroix à Signac, Dessins de la Collection Dyke, an absolutely delightful presentation of nearly 100 drawings, watercolors and pastels from the extensive treasure trove of American collector James T. Dyke, of Dyke Industries in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The works on show—20 of which are part of a donation made by Dyke to the National Gallery of Art in Washington—are by some of the most important artists of the 19th and early 20th century, from Romantics of the 1830s to Nabis and Neo-Impressionists, including Delacroix, Chasseriau, Rousseau, Bonnard, Cézanne, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Seurat, Signac and Vuillard.

Among the most impressive early works are Delacroix’s watercolor Le Cavalier Anglais (1826–30), a dashing soldier with a feathered Musketeer hat and a Van Dyke beard, his delicate white gloves and lace collar perfectly detailed. The lesser known Eugène Isabey stands out with a superb, roiling watercolor seascape of Fishing Boats at Sea in a Storm (c. 1840).

Among the Impressionists, Degas’s Two Women Ironing (c. 1885) is a pastel study in oranges and pinks, while Seurat’s tiny Strolling Woman with a Muff is a stylized, shadowy silhouette with a pert bustled skirt in charcoal-black Conté crayon (c. 1884). Among the most memorable of all is the large charcoal profile of an Elderly Peasant Woman, with her tired face and pensive eyes (c. 1878), by naturalist painter Léon-Augustin Lhermitte.

Monet’s pastel vision of London’s Waterloo Bridge is almost lost in a soft blue haze (c. 1901), and Signac’s watercolor Eucalyptus in Antibes stands alone, its leaves like small blue bouquets on gnarled branches—one of more than a dozen charming works by Signac that end the show.

The Musée des Impressionnismes is dedicated to artists of the Impressionist movement and their international successors. Housed in a building originally built for the Museum of American Art founded by Daniel Terra of the Terra Foundation for American Art in Evanston, Illinois, the Musée des Impressionnismes is now under the wing of the Musée d’Orsay, although the Terra Foundation remains involved.

It’s an easy day trip from Paris, by train to Vernon and then bus or taxi to Giverny, and can be easily combined with a visit to the Monet house and gardens. The charming restaurant and tea salon Les Nymphéas, named for Monet’s water lilies, is a perfect stop for lunch.

Musée des Impressionnismes, 99 rue Claude Monet, Giverny, 02.32.51.94.65. Admission €6.50. July 27 to October 31. website

Les Nymphéas, 109 rue Claude Monet, 02.32.21.20.31. www.giverny-restaurant-nympheas.fr