An Inside Look at the Most Beautiful Artist Houses Around the World

In 1930, the Spanish artist settled down in the remote village of Portlligat on the Costa Brava because it was the “ideal place for my work[…] time [here] goes more slowly and each hour has its proper dimension.”

He bought a tiny fisherman’s hut and over the course of the next 40 years, he expanded it to a home with a labyrinth-like setup—narrow corridors and passageways connect tiny cell-like rooms all with windows of different sizes and shapes. The décor is very much what you would expect from an artist such as Dalí—an enormous bust of a bear that Dalí himself had created welcomes you next to the staircase while velvet upholstery and antique furniture fill up the rooms.

Known as the Blue House—built in 1904 by Kahlo’s father—the one-story home where the artist spent her entire life is located in the oldest neighborhood of Mexico City.

The house is very much a reflection of the artist’s daily life—the kitchen is filled with clay pots and casserole dishes (both Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera loved to entertain) and the couple’s names are written in shells on the wall.

The rooms are filled with items from Kahlo and Rivera’s collection of traditional Mexican folk art that both artists were huge fans of. The Kahlo’s studio was later added to the house and it was purposefully built using basalt and volcanic stone, local materials that the Aztecs used to carve their ceremonial pieces.

It is again Kahlo and Rivera’s love for Mexico that prompted the transformation of the private home into a public museum after Kahlo’s death.

Touring Monet’s house feels a bit surreal—almost like you’re walking through one of his paintings: color is everywhere. Initially, the house was much smaller but the artist extended it to accommodate his big family and artistic needs.

He wanted the home to blend in with the garden so he painted the facade pink and the window shutters—green (a very unusual choice during the Victorian era when most houses were gray). Inside, he chose beautiful shades of blue for the sitting-room walls and furniture and a striking yellow for one of the dining rooms. Because he wanted the adjacent kitchen to be in harmony with the dining room, he covered its walls in blue ceramic tiles sourced from Rouen and stocked it with honey-hued copper cookware. In his bedroom, a lilac wardrobe stands next to his bed frame painted in a soft yellow shade.

Leighton may not be a household name on this side of the Atlantic but he is considered one of the, if not the, leading Victorian-era artists. In 1855, Queen Victoria bought a 17-foot long painting of his called Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna and launched his career when he was just 25 years old.

Even though he spent the first part of his life traveling with his parents all over Europe, Leighton eventually settled down in West London where he built—and extended over a period of 30 years—his “studio-house.”

One of the most famous rooms in it is the Arab Hall where Leighton’s collection of artifacts from Turkey and Syria was displayed. The breathtaking interior was inspired by the 12th-century palazzo La Zisa in Palermo, Sicily. While the mosaics and marbles were all sourced from London, the gold mosaic frieze was made and then shipped from Venice, and the tiles, most of them dating from the 15th century and beginning of the 16th century, were brought in from İznik, Damascus, and Persia.

The pink-stoned Château of Clos Lucé in the Loire Valley in central France dates back to the late 1400s. For a very long time, it served as a vacation spot for kings and other royalty. 

It became Leonardo da Vinci’s last residence in 1516 after the prolific artist accepted an invitation by King Francis I to move to France. Da Vinci, then 64, traveled through the Alps from Milan on the back of a mule carrying with him many of his sketches and paintings including the Mona Lisa (which maybe explains why it’s hanging in the Louvre and not a museum in Italy).

The manor’s interior is a beautiful example of Renaissance art—richly carved furniture, frescos painted by Da Vinci’s pupils, and stained glass.

It is in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence in the South of France that the French painter spent the last five years of his life. He purchased an old house together with some land perched on a hill overlooking the Sainte Victoire mountains.

Cézanne then had a bright studio added to the house where he would finish some of his most famous masterpieces such as The Bathers. Interestingly enough, he actually lived in an apartment in town together with his wife but each day he commuted to his studio to paint. Very often, when the weather was bad he would stay inside and would work on still life images.