The Independent Recommends: The five best shows

Monet in the 20th Century (Royal Academy)

He lived until 1926. The gardens and lily ponds at Giverny dissolve into elemental visions: fiery lights, haze, liquid reflections, voids and depths. The strange last works of Impressionism. To 18 Apr

Portraits by Ingres (National Gallery)

Some of the most intense portraiture ever (right). Women: exquisite melanges of flesh and fabric, dreams of sex and money. To 25 Apr

Patrick Caulfield (Hayward Gallery)

The modern object-world made luminous. This survey of nearly 50 years' work offers his full range - notably, those bold laconic outlines, blocked in with translucent colour. To 11 Apr

Disasters of War

(Wolverhampton Art Gallery)

"I saw this" - three ages of European war through the etchings of Jacques Callot, Goya and Otto Dix. Visions from the blackest of times. To 20 Mar

Thinking Aloud

(Cornerhouse, Manchester)

Sculptor Richard Wentworth curates an exploration of creativity in art and design: an assortment of rough drafts, doodles and models. To 28 Feb