There is a plurality to the appeal of artists’ houses. As interiors enthusiasts, we can allow our eyes to travel the rooms, taking in Claude Monet’s dopamine-delivering kitchen of blue and white tiles paired with bright turquoise woodwork and copper pans, a staircase elevated by Wassily Kandinsky’s folk-inspired frieze of horses cantering up it, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s clever and chic linen-lined walls. There is cross over in such details with what we can learn about the former inhabitants as people. We discover a Surrealist’s culinary passion, a Bloomsbury ménage’s appreciation for particular writers and their admiration for other artists. Moreover, we might find tangible connection in a shared insistence on baby-proofed rounded edges, or the existence of an Aga. And of course, we can stand where the artist stood, look at views they saw, were inspired by, and perhaps painted - the whole affording us a new insight into their work.
The Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
Coming to the main galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in September is a glorious exhibition entitled Painting the French Riviera, showing exquisite canvases by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Nicolas de Stael, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard – and more – that tell of the impact the colour, light and landscape of the Cote d’Azur had on the work of these giants of art history. Many of them were so inspired that they moved there, including Renoir, whose neo-Provençal home and studio, the Domaine des Colettes in Cagnes-sur-Mer, was designed by him with the architect Jules Febvre in 1908, and is where he lived until his death in 1919. There is little in the way of surviving furniture – though the linen walls, floral borders and bathroom taps are to be noted – but the garden, too, has been preserved, and hanging on the walls are numerous paintings, while the basement holds a collection of his sculptures, a medium begun from this house. Living here also saw an increased vibrancy in Renoir’ palette, and he repeatedly painted the sun-drenched landscape - olive groves, the coast, and the views from this ravishingly pretty, orange blossom-scented garden.
The Münter House in Murnau, Bavaria
The Blue Rider – or, in German, Der Blaue Reiter – was an international group of artists brought together by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc in 1911, united by a desire to express spiritual truths through art. Gabriele Münter, who was in a relationship with Kandinsky, was another of the driving forces. And, in possession of an inheritance that made her more financially secure than her lover, it was she who in 1909 bought the house in Murnau that they lived in, and that now bears her name (it was initially called The Russian House, referencing his heritage). It looks out over the red roofs of Murnau and its charming, onion-domed church – and beyond, to the inviting beginnings of the Bavarian Alps – a view that was vital to Kandinsky as a vehicle for his artistic experiments. Münter and Kandinsky furnished and decorated the house together, influenced by local custom, folk tradition and their feelings about colour, and the wonderful assortment of painted furniture and pattern make it a rich source of inspiration. But this house has been more than somewhere to live. During the Second World War, when Expressionism was declared as degenerate by the Nazi forces, Münter hid The Blue Riders’ paintings behind false walls in the basement of the house – so preserving them, and enabling her, when she died, to leave the entire collection to the Lenbachhaus in nearby Munich.
Farleys House & Gallery in East Sussex
A Georgian farmhouse not far from Hailsham in East Sussex, Farleys House – which became a centre for the British surrealists – is where Lee Miller, pioneering war correspondent and photographer, and Roland Penrose, artist and co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (the ICA), lived and worked from 1949 until their deaths. It’s where they hung their art collection, and where they hosted friends who included Man Ray, Joan Miró, and Picasso. The preserved rooms provide fascinating insight, as well as a wealth of interior ideas. For while the whole epitomises many aspects of English country house style, there are gloriously surreal twists: witness the Picasso tile cemented in above the Aga, Roland Penrose’s mural in the dining room, and the juxtaposition of Picasso ceramics with a plastic King Kong. We can see more of this house on screen, for it was used in the filming of Lee, the excellent biopic that stars Kate Winslet in the titular role. The house, galleries and garden are open to visitors from April to October.
Atelier des Lauves and Bastide du Jas de Bouffan in Aix-en-Provence, France
Paul Cézanne is strongly associated with Aix-en-Provence, for he grew up there and, after time away in Paris, returned in 1886, remaining there until he died in 1906. There are now several ‘Cézanne sites’ – of which one of the most interesting is undoubtedly the Atelier des Lauves, his former studio, where he worked for the final years of his life. When Cézanne found the studio, it was little more than a hut, but he was drawn by the extraordinary views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, which he had been painting repeatedly for thirty-plus years. He bought it, along with 7000 square metres of land planted with olive and fig trees, and had a studio built. It takes up the entire first floor of a Provençal house (downstairs are a couple of sitting rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom) and was a place of contemplation for the artist, as well as where he created some of his most monumental works, from Les Grandes Baigneuses to further views of his beloved mountain. Although there are no original works there now, his furniture and equipment remain – as well as an essence of Cézanne himself. The ideal is to combine it with visits to other of the sites – and the Bastide du Jas de Bouffan was the Cézanne family’s summer house, where the artist established his first studio, and where he lived for a few years when he returned to the south. There, original works do exist, including the murals that Cézanne painted onto the walls of the Grand Salon in the 1860s.
Maison Jean Cocteau, in Fontainebleau, France
Jean Cocteau was known as the enfant terrible of the French avant-garde. He bought this house in Milly la Forêt, just outside Fontainebleau, with the actor Jean Marais in 1947, and he lived and worked here for17 years, writing, painting, and collecting all sorts of things, including props from his films. The house – which opens for the season in May - was decorated with his friend, the great Madeleine Castaing, so it’s got serious interior design credentials. Note the leopard print wallpaper (leopard print was one of Castaing’s signatures), and the single four poster bed – and much of it truly is as he left it, for when he died his lover and heir closed up the living room, and Cocteau’s bedroom and study, and it stayed untouched until Pierre Bergé (Yves Saint Laurent’s partner) restored it. If you like this house, put Villa Santo Sospir on the Cap Ferrat on your list, too. It’s another Cocteau-Castaing collaboration, done for the American millionaire Alec Weisweiller and his French wife Francine in the late 1940s and early 1950s; Cocteau lived there with them for a while, drawing and painting all over the walls (santosospir.com)
Claude Monet’s House and Garden at Giverny
Monet’s garden at Giverny is legendary, for he painted it over and over again, and those paintings have become some of the most famous in the entire history of art. The house itself is a comparable wonder. Monet lived there for forty-three years, from 1883 to 1926, extending it, and laying it out according to his need and taste. He chose the colours himself – and the blues, yellows and greens sing in ways that are extraordinary even now, let alone then; have you ever seen a dining room to match Monet’s? Also, note the tiles in the kitchen that he sourced locally, and the Japanese woodblocks that he collected for over fifty years.
Leighton House, London
On a Kensington back street, between the High Street and Holland Park, is the extraordinary house that Lord Frederic Leighton built for himself in the 1860s. The unassuming red brick façade gives not a hint of the beauty that lies within, for his Arab Hall, with walls encased in exceptional underglazed tiles from the Near East (Iznik, Damascus and Persia) and crowned by a gilded dome, is one of those rooms that, once seen, is never forgotten (even if, unlike James Whistler and Edward Burne-Jones, you don’t accidentally walk into the shallow pool that lies at its centre.) There are other lessons here too: Leighton designed the house only to please himself - despite its size, there is only one bedroom. (It did, however, make it harder to sell – though he was dead, so it wouldn’t have worried him.) While the house contains many of Leighton’s paintings, the other thing to know is of the concerts that take place in the house, in the large room that was once Leighton’s studio, where he too hosted concerts in his time; tickets can be booked on the website.
leightonhouse.digitickets.co.uk
Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, St. Ives, Cornwall
Barbara Hepworth moved to St. Ives on the eve of the Second World War, and never left. Her final home and studio on Barnoon Hill – a high-walled house on a steep, narrow street – is now looked after by Tate St. Ives. There is less to take here from the interiors, only the living room remains - though, for fans of modernism, it is another strong argument for the elegant simplicity of white walls and an uncluttered palette - but her workshop is still filled with her equipment, and the verdant garden that the composer Priaulx Rainier helped design contains not only uncut stones seemingly waiting for their turn under Hepworth’s tools, but also several of her favourite sculptures. There are few lovelier places to while away an afternoon, but do make time for a trip to the Tate before you leave St Ives, and perhaps swing by the shop at the Leach Pottery.
Casa Salvador Dali, Cadaqués, Portugal
The great surrealist’s house in Portilligat, just outside Cadaqués on the west coast of Spain not a million miles from the French border, started off as a small fisherman’s hut before morphing, over the years, into a castellated warren of a villa. Dali and his wife Gala only spent summers here – and as they left each year, they’d drop off sketches for the changes they wanted made with their builder, Emilio Puignau (he later became mayor of Cadaqués) who would interpret them and get to work. There are stuffed swans on top of the library shelves, an incredibly phallic pool, and a giant egg-shaped sculpture balanced on the roof. But there are transferrable tips, too – such as the bedroom where the beds and armchair are covered in matching blue-bordered red fabric. Perhaps most of all, there’s wit, and exuberance, and fun (which, in several instances, definitely qualifies as kitsch.)
Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent
The former home of artist, writer, filmmaker, gardener and gay rights activist Derek Jarman, Prospect Cottage has become a place of quasi-pilgrimage – not least because of the garden that Jarman established. It rises, miracle-like, from the shingle; Dungeness is a desert, and those who live there do so in the shadow of a vast nuclear power station. Jarman died from AIDS-related illness in 1994, but his partner, Keith Collins, kept the garden and the house going, and when he died, Prospect Cottage was happily saved for the nation by Art Fund – which has granted us occasional access to the interiors. Tours are guided – and fascinating – telling the visitor more about Jarman’s life, and pointing out the relevance of every ornament, piece of art, and film prop. Note too the wonders that Jarman produced using driftwood and hag stones, the love letters etched in glass, and the colours.
The Venet Foundation, Le Muy, France
Forty-five minutes by car from both Nice and the beaches of St. Tropez is Le Muy – where the great French artist Bernar Venet (who, unlike the other artists mentioned so far, is very much still alive) has established a foundation with an extraordinary sculpture garden. It features the only Frank Stella chapel in existence, a Skyspace installation by James Turrell, and a slew of Bernar’s own monumental structures in Corten steel, which are juxtaposed against breathtaking views across the plains of Argens to the mountains beyond. Not on the tour yet – but keep your eyes peeled, for there are plans to make it accessible – is the main house, which contains a wall painting by Sol Le Witt, a number of Dan Flavin light sculptures, a canvas by Robert Motherwell, and furniture by Donald Judd and Bernar (who, like Judd, practices both art and design.) The whole is an extraordinary record of the salad days of the French Nouveau Realistes and the American Minimalists, with whom Bernar is and was friends, and, on occasion, shared studio space. Increasing the wonder is that much of the collection has been acquired via art swaps. There is gallery space in the garden with a roster of changing exhibitions, and visitors can also access part of the Usine (factory) where Bernar and his wife live during the summer months. The 2026 season runs from May 8 – October 3.
Henry Moore Studio and Gardens in Hertfordshire
In 1940, Henry and Irina Moore’s London home was damaged during the Blitz, and they moved to a small, semi-detached house in Perry Green, Hertfordshire. At the time, they thought it was a temporary move - but instead they bought the other half of the house, and gradually acquired more land, enabling space both for several studios, and for Moore’s massive sculptures to be sited in the landscape. The organic, abstract forms punctuate the charming gardens and surrounding sheep-grazed fields, while the studios, containing maquettes, equipment and works in progress offer extraordinary insight into his practice. But the house, Hoglands, visitable via pre-booked tour, also holds clues – for it is here that Moore’s extensive collection of non-Western art can be seen, as well as paintings by Ivon Hitchens, Walter Sickert, and Gustave Courbet, ceramics by Lucie Rie, and works by fellow sculptors Anthony Caro, Kenneth Armitage, and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Also to note are the kitchen curtains; the fabric was designed by Moore.
Charleston in Firle, East Sussex
This farmhouse - the country outpost of the Bloomsbury Group - needs little introduction: we all know of the debt interior design owes to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s experiment in living – and loving. They moved in in 1916, and almost immediately began to paint – and not just on paper or canvas. Tables, cupboards, doors, fireplaces – all became viable surfaces for colour, pattern, and quasi-mythical scenes. The garden was designed by Roger Fry, a former lover of Vanessa’s who co-founded the Omega Workshop with her and Duncan Grant. If you’ve driven, be sure to visit the nearby Berwick Church too, which was decorated by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and her son Quentin Bell, during the Second World War. (Somewhat controversially, Grant used his friend and probable lover, Edward Le Bas, as the model for Christ in the crucifixion scene.)
The Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
Villa Stuck in Munich is a triumph of self-belief. Franz Stuck – who married an American heiress and became Franz von Stuck after receiving the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown – designed and built this house as a Gesamtkunstwerk, which translates to ‘total work of art.’ His aim was that it should amalgamate life, architecture, art, music, and theatre all in one space, and he designed literally everything – furniture, furnishings, and finish. Co-founder of the Munich Secession and Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (his pupils included Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers) he drew on a variety of sources, with a particular concentration on Classicism and Art Nouveau. The result is unabashedly and gloriously full-on; both exterior and interior are garlanded with classical statuary, there’s a hand-painted (by Stuck, obviously) zodiac ceiling, gold mosaic walls, antique mirrors and decorative Jugendstil motifs – and that’s before we’ve even got onto the furniture, for which Stuck won a gold medal at the 1900 Paris World Exposition.
