Monet at MUNCH 2027: Which Evening to Go

Monet painted this mountain 13 times near Oslo

Monet reached Sandvika, just west of Oslo, on 15 February 1895, stayed five weeks and kept painting the peak of Kolsås. He thought the old houses by the bridge looked like a Japanese village.

MUNCH has not published a list of works, but it illustrates the show with a Kolsås from 1895.

Floor 3 sets wild coasts against his garden

The show follows his last four decades: the Mediterranean coast, Brittany, the Creuse Valley and Norway, set against the garden he built at Giverny. The water lilies are at the centre. Give the late pictures the most time: he painted them as his eyesight failed, and MUNCH calls some of them the freest he ever made.

Loans from the Marmottan and Orsay in Paris and the National Galleries in London and Washington save you three flights.

Book a Saturday evening, not the Oslo Pass

MUNCH stays open until 21:00 Wednesday to Saturday, and only Saturday has no school or group tours of this show. Entry is every 30 minutes and you can stay as long as you like, so take 18:00 for three hours before closing.

First Wednesdays are free from 18:00 to 21:00, drop-in with tickets at the museum. That points to 3 March, 7 April and 5 May, but MUNCH has not listed those dates, so treat them as a bonus.

The Oslo Pass gets you in but reserves no slot: you collect a ticket on arrival and wait if none are left. An adult pass costs 580 NOK for 24 hours against a 220 NOK ticket, so skip it for this show alone.

Eat first: food and drink stay out of the halls, and MUNCH does not guarantee a way back in if you leave for a meal. Palate, 3 minutes' walk, cooks Italian and French with Scandinavian ingredients. Or eat after: MUNCH's restaurant adds a Monet menu from 18 February, and its kitchen is open until 22:00 on Saturdays.

Sunday to Tuesday until 18:00. Edvard Munchs plass 1.

See the bridge Monet painted in Sandvika

With a spare half-day, take the train to Sandvika, about 14 minutes from Oslo S. Løkke bro, Norway's first cast iron bridge and the one in the painting at the top of this page, stands in Løkkehaven park, 4 minutes' walk from the station.

It has since been moved, so his view has gone. He would have coped: he told an interviewer in Norway he wanted to paint the air around a bridge, not the bridge. In the park, Tobbe Malm's Monet point of 2020 reproduces one of those paintings, and the mural under the bridge has his lilies on it.

Løkkehaven park, Elias Smiths vei 5, Sandvika.