From Dali to Da Vinci: See inside 9 amazing artist homes

See inside these famous artists' private homes

Have you ever wanted to peek inside the private life of your favourite painter? Well, you may just be in luck. Join us on a trip around the world, as we explore nine homes belonging to some of history's most celebrated artists. Now public museums or private homes, these properties still retain certain design elements from when their respective artists were in residence.

Read on to dive into in the worlds of these eccentric creatives, starting with Pablo Picasso's French villa...

Salvador Dalí's 'Casa Dalí', Portlligat, Spain

Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí achieved international fame during his lifetime both for his original and unusual artwork, along with his own eccentric personal flair. Inspired by a combination of Renaissance old masters, Impressionism, and Cubism, Dalí developed his own artistic style, which he dubbed ‘nuclear mysticism’, characterised by bizarre and ‘dreamlike’ imagery across numerous mediums.

Throughout a career that spanned nearly seven decades in the 20th century, Dalí created a legacy that would go on to influence other Surrealist artists, as well as the development of pop art.

Salvador Dalí's 'Casa Dalí', Portlligat, Spain

In 1930, at the age of 26, Dalí bought a fisherman’s hut in the Spanish fishing village of Portlligat. The compact space appealed to Dalí, who hoped the cramped quarters would serve as an incubator for his creative vision.

"I wanted it good and small," he later wrote in his autobiography. "The smaller the more womb-like."

His original intent for the space was a 43 square foot (4sqm) room, which would serve as a dining room, studio and bedroom, with a flight of stairs leading up to a kitchen and a bedroom.

Salvador Dalí's 'Casa Dalí', Portlligat, Spain

However, over the course of the next 40 years, as the hut became the artist’s primary residence, Dalí began accumulating the neighbouring buildings, ultimately expanding his home across four adjoining huts to create a labyrinthine seaside retreat.

It was here that Dalí painted his arguably most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, which depicts an assortment of seemingly melting pocket watches and clocks.

Salvador Dalí's 'Casa Dalí', Portlligat, Spain

Today, the home is a museum open to the public and remains largely as Dalí left it, packed with artworks and knickknacks collected by the artist over the years. Starting in the main foyer, known as the Bear Lobby, the home expands by means of many narrow corridors and blind passageways, connecting the separate huts across multiple floors.

The house is built along a bluff overlooking the sea, so there are many slight level changes and winding staircases as you transition from one room to the next.

Salvador Dalí's 'Casa Dalí', Portlligat, Spain

At the very top of the home, a terracotta terrace with four rectangular reflecting pools offers a spectacular view of the harbour and sea below, though the view is dominated by a large sculptural egg – one of many around the property.

The egg was a common Dalían image appearing in many of his artworks and was meant to symbolise hope and love because of its prenatal associations.

Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

Born in 1881 into a well to do family in Malaga, Spain, Pablo Picasso is known worldwide for his innovative work and prolific output. A painter, sculptor, ceramicist and printmaker, Picasso's best known works include the paintings Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Guernica – but we might not be as familiar with his homelife.

He's photographed here in 1966 in France, where he called the elegant Villa La Californie in Cannes home.

Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

The grand three-storey villa was built in 1920 in the chic seaside town's La Californie quarter. Picasso had lived in the area since the 1940s, but it wasn't until 1955, at the age of 74, that he bought the impressive house with his second wife, Jacqueline, who was 28 at the time.

Picasso often painted on the upper balcony, capturing the breathtaking views over the Bay of Cannes.

Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

Picasso transformed the living room of the home into his studio, quickly filling it with his paintings and sculptures. He is said to have used elements of the villa in his paintings, describing them as "interior landscapes."

He's photographed here with art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in 1957. Kahnweiler believed the Mediterranean became Picasso's "new homeland"  during this time. Picasso loved the area so much, he even bought a 14th century castle, Château de Vauvenargues, in neary Aix-en-Provence.

Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

At first glance, the room looks starkly different in this photo taken in June 2013. However, when compared to the previous image, you can see the elegant bones of the rooms are still present.

Pablo's granddaughter, Marina Picasso, inherited the villa when she was just 22 and put it up for sale in 2015. While she reportedly received an offer of £110 million ($140m) for the home, Marina revealed that it held 'painful' childhood memories for her. She remembers being taken to the gates of the grand home by her penniless father, Paulo, to beg for handouts from his indifferent father.

Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

Picasso sold Villa La Californie in 1961, after his sea view was blocked by a new building. He then moved 20 minutes away to Château de Vie in Mougins, which was to be his final home. He Jaqueline lived a quiet, reclusive life from then on, allowing Picasso to focus on his art, which he did with huge success. Between 1968 and 1972 alone he painted over 100 paintings and made hundreds of engravings.

He died at the age of 91 in April 1973, leaving behind him an unrivalled artistic legacy.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's summer home, Essoyes, France

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a leading French Impressionist painter, best known for his artistic celebrations of female beauty and sensuality. Renoir specialised in portraiture, though his most famous works feature bustling crowd scenes, such as his Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon at the Boating Party.

Though Renoir enjoyed reasonable success during his lifetime, his popularity and renown, like that of many Impressionist painters, has increased significantly since the late 20th century.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's summer home, Essoyes, France

From 1896 until his death in 1919, Renoir and his wife, Aline Charigot, spent their summers in this charming country house in Essoyes, a quaint village in the Champagne-Ardennes region of France. Renoir was a stout Parisian, moving to the countryside grudgingly at the behest of his wife.

However, he quickly fell in love with the beautiful rural surroundings, which came to inspire his work, motivating him to paint ‘almost daily.’

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's summer home, Essoyes, France

Until he could afford to build a studio, Renoir painted in the upstairs of his home, turning his modest bedroom into a cluttered workspace.

Eventually, he was able to afford to add a small studio at the bottom of his garden and today guests can visit this paint-spattered oasis where the artist immortalised his new favourite subjects: his children, their nanny and even the local laundresses at work, washing out clothes in the stream.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's summer home, Essoyes, France

The interior of the home is quite rustic, reflecting the artist’s modest means when he and his family occupied it, though still warm in the characteristically French country style. Visitors can explore the kitchen, living room, dining room and three bedrooms belonging to Renoir, Aline and the children respectively.

Also on display is Renoir’s wheelchair, into which the artist was confined when he began to struggle with acute arthritis, declaring that he would rather give up walking than painting.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's summer home, Essoyes, France

The Essoyes summer house continued to be owned by the Renoir family until 2012, at which point the artist’s great-granddaughter, Sophie Renoir, sold the property to the Essoyes village council.

After a €1 million (£860k/$1.1m) renovation project, the home was reopened to the public as a museum in June 2017.

Albrecht Dürer's house, Nuremberg, Germany

Perhaps Germany's most celebrated artist, Albrecht Dürer was a shining star of the German Renaissance. Born in May 1471, Dürer was born and worked in Nuremberg, which was one of Europe's most important artistic and commercial cities at the time.

He's best known for works including a large-scale oil called The Feast of the Rosary and a watercolour of a young hare, as well as a series of haunting self-portraits. His work is so beloved that his medieval home has been open to the public since 1871. Let's take tour...

Albrecht Dürer's house, Nuremberg, Germany

Dürer moved into the impressive half-timbered sandstone house in 1509, at the height of his career. It stands in a square next to the Tiergärtnertor, a gate in the city wall which dates back to the 13th century. The house and square have long been a popular tourist destination; English painter JMW Turner sketched them in 1835.

Amazingly, the home and the gate both survived the allied bombing of Nuremberg's old town in 1945. Intriguingly, the square also houses a Second World War 'art bunker', where historic treasures were hidden from air raids in a network of secret cellars.

Albrecht Dürer's house, Nuremberg, Germany

Built around 1420, the house was renovated just before the Dürers bought it. Albrecht lived in the home with his wife Agnes and his mother, as well as some of his pupils and apprentices. They may have received notable guests in this living room, which was refurbished in 1880 to replicate the style of Dürer's time.

Note the bullseye-glass window panes and medieval cross-frame armchairs. The room is remarkably similar to one depicted in Dürer's 1514 engraving of Saint Jerome in His Study and may give us an idea of the objects and furniture Albrecht had in his home.

Albrecht Dürer's house, Nuremberg, Germany

On the first floor of the historic home, the kitchen still contains the original hearth that the Dürer's servants would have cooked the family's meals on.

It may look like a simple affair to us but it offers a rare glimpse into the everyday life of wealthy citizens at the beginning of the 16th century.

Albrecht Dürer's house, Nuremberg, Germany

On the second floor, this artist's studio was created in the 19th century by knocking together a bedroom and sitting room. It contains all the tools of Dürer's trade, while an adjoining room holds a reproduction of a full-size copperplate printing press based on a drawing of one by the artist.

Dürer made his greatest impact on the history of art with his printmaking. He took woodcuts to new heights of "technical virtuosity, intellectual scope and psychological depth", according to the Met Museum, New York.

Leonardo da Vinci’s 13th-century castle, Loire Valley, France

When you think about iconic paintings, it's likely several of Leonardo da Vinci’s immediately spring to mind. A true Renaissance man, da Vinci not only painted The Last Supper in 1498 and the Mona Lisa in 1503, but he left a significant legacy in the science world, too.

The great artist and thinker lived in an apartment in Bologna, Italy, before he moved to a beautiful French castle, where he passed away in 1519...

Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century castle, Loire Valley, France

Built in 1471, the Chateau du Clos Lucé stands in the beautiful Loire Valley, tucked away on a narrow street in the town of Amboise.

Leonardo moved into the castle in 1516, on the invitation of King Francis I who lived in the nearby Chateau d'Amboise, which was where the kings of France were based during the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century castle, Loire Valley, France

Leonardo's bedroom was grand affair and – although enormous – this impressive stone fireplace would have kept the room toasty during winter.

A huge fan of da Vinci's work, King Francis I named him the 'Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King' and gave him a generous pension, as well as the use of the chateau.

Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century castle, Loire Valley, France

Although only 64 when he arrived at Clos Luce, da Vinci was nearing the end of his life and he devoted those final years to teaching, as well as working on projects for the French king.

He brought with him his notebooks and three of his most famous works; the Mona Lisa, St John the Baptist and St Anne, which are now housed in the Louvre museum in Paris.

Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century castle, Loire Valley, France

Today, a likeness of the great artist can be seen peering from a tunnel beneath the castle, which is believed to have once linked Chateau du Clos Luce to Francis I's castle, so the two men could meet every day.

Leonardo is said to have died in the arms of the French king on 2 May 1519 and he was buried in the chapel at Chateau d'Amboise. Both chateaux are open to the public, as is da Vinci's tomb.

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico

Celebrated largely for her self-portraiture and Surrealist style, Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who used her work to explore questions of gender, class, race, Mexican culture and, above all else, her own identity.

As a child, Kahlo suffered from polio and was further injured in a bus accident at the age of 18, leaving her with medical complications and lifelong pain. Unable to do many of the things she wished, Kahlo used her art as means of coping with her own loss and suffering.

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico

Largely bed-bound for much of her life, Kahlo spent most of her time in La Casa Azul, or the Blue House, the family home built by her father in 1904.

Kahlo herself was born in the home in 1907 and died there in 1954. Four years later, Kahlo’s husband, Diego Rivera, donated the home to the nation of Mexico and the property was turned into a museum. Museo Frida Kahlo, as it is now known, has remained largely as it was at the time of Kahlo’s passing.

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico

The home itself is built in the traditional Mexican colonial style, constructed around a central courtyard. Rivera made several additions to the house, which included enclosing the courtyard entirely and adding a wing, which became Kahlo’s sanctuary and convalescing space.

The large two-storey home includes this brightly-coloured kitchen, several bedrooms, large communal areas and separate studio spaces for both artists. It is decorated throughout with the works of local and international artists, as well as many archaeological artefacts.

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico

During her life, Kahlo was passionately involved in politics and was an outspoken member of the Mexican Communist Party, through which she met Rivera. Casa Azul became a haven for many intellectuals and political exiles, including Russian Marxist, Leon Trotsky.

Paintings of her two idols, Mao and Lenin, can still be found hanging over Kahlo’s bed, while her wheelchair remains by an unfinished portrait of Stalin that she was working on at the time of her death.

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico

The house was transitioned into a museum under the careful supervision of Kahlo and Rivera’s friend, museographer and poet Carlos Pellicer, who received strict instructions to leave the property as it was.

With Kahlo’s clothes still hanging in her wardrobe, and her paints and brushes laid out as though waiting for the artist to pick them up at any minute, the museum is a unique opportunity for admirers to immerse themselves in Kahlo’s life and work. Even her ashes are on display in an urn, for guests wishing to pay their respects.

Frederic Leighton's home, London, UK

Frederic Leighton was a celebrated 19th-century painter, sculptor and draughtsman. His paintings, which were largely biblical, historical and classical in theme, were hugely popular and expensive during his lifetime but fell out of critical favour in the 20th century.

Though Leighton’s career included professional successes, such as becoming President of the Royal Academy, representing Britain at the 1900 Paris Exhibition and receiving a knighthood, it was also punctuated with then scandalous rumours of supposed homosexuality and illegitimate children.

Frederic Leighton's home, London, UK

Originally constructed in the 1860s, Leighton’s studio-house on the edge of Holland Park in London was a passion project that absorbed much of the artist’s time and attention until his death in 1896.

Leighton designed the house to serve multiple functions – studio space, entertaining venue, living quarters and showplace for his many collections and spared no expense in its construction. The property was regularly featured in the press and came to be synonymous with public perception of ‘how a great artist should live.’

Frederic Leighton's home, London, UK

Having made his acquaintance in Rome in the early 1850s, Leighton contracted architect George Aitchison to build the property, even though he had no experience with residential architecture.

Over the course of a career-altering 30-year period, Aitchison was responsible not only for Leighton house’s exterior design but its interior and much of its furniture design as well. As a result, Aitchison was subsequently employed by numerous wealthy and artistically inclined London homeowners as an interior designer.

Frederic Leighton's home, London, UK

The most iconic feature of the property is the Arab Hall, an extension added between 1877 and 1881. Leighton was a great world traveller and – on a series of trips to Turkey, Egypt and Syria between 1867 and 1873 – he collected a wide array of pottery, textiles and objets d’art, including the collection of tiles from Damascus, which adorn the walls of the Arab Hall.

The Hall was inspired predominantly by the interior of a 12th-century Sicilio-Norman palace called La Zisa at Palermo in Sicily.

Frederic Leighton's home, London, UK

Despite his many artistic accomplishments, Leighton’s Holland Park home is likely his most enduring masterpiece. In an 1899 letter to The Times, one of Leighton’s sisters explained: "He built the house as it now stands for his own artistic delight. Every stone of it had been the object of his loving care."

After an £8 million ($10.2m) renovation, Leighton House reopened to the public as a museum, where visitors can view the artist’s studio, artwork and spectacular collections he assembled with such passion.

Claude Monet's home and garden, Giverny, France

Known as the Father of Impressionism, Claude Monet was a French painter renowned for his breathtaking depictions of the natural world. Born and raised in Le Havre, Normandy, Monet harboured an abiding love for the French countryside, which he strove to capture in his work, with particular emphasis on the more intangible details, such as the changing of light or the passing of seasons.

Though Monet enjoyed great success during his own lifetime, his fame skyrocketed during the later 20th century, inspiring the rise of Modernism.

Claude Monet's home and garden, Giverny, France

In 1883, Monet rented a house and gardens in Giverny, where he moved with his wife and two sons in the hope that the change would provide some domestic stability. The house included a large barn, which Monet used as a painting studio, as well as an orchard and a small garden, which the family keenly cultivated.

Financially bolstered by his increasing success, Monet purchased the house in 1890 and would continue to live there until his death in 1926.

Claude Monet's home and garden, Giverny, France

Over that 40-year period, the gardens would serve as Monet’s greatest source of artistic inspiration resulting in his most celebrated works, including his world-famous ‘Water Lilies’ series.

During the 1890s, Monet expanded the property, adding a greenhouse and a large second studio. He continued to lovingly cultivate the gardens himself, hiring a fleet of gardeners to carry out his instructions, and purchasing nearby land and a water meadow to continue the expansion.

Claude Monet's home and garden, Giverny, France

Not to be outdone by its sumptuous surroundings, the house itself is a riot of colour, with rosy pink exterior walls, vivid green shutters and sun-drenched rooms in brilliant blues and yellows.

During his time in Giverny, Monet’s home was a frequent gathering place for countless artists, writers, politicians and intellectuals from around the world. These included John Singer Sargent, who became an intimate colleague and friend, the pair influencing each other’s work for several decades.

Claude Monet's home and garden, Giverny, France

Today, the home and gardens are a museum open to the public. Guests can wander through the family kitchen, dining room and ‘blue sitting room’, explore the bedrooms that once belonged to Monet, Alice and their sons, and visit Monet’s first studio, now hung with reproductions of his work to evoke the cluttered, active space the studio once was.

Throughout the rest of the house, the furniture and artwork remain nearly exactly as they did at the time of the artist’s death.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's house and studio, New York, USA

In 1945, Jackson Pollock, ground-breaking artist and father of the Abstract Expressionist movement, married fellow artist Lee Krasner and moved from New York City to East Hampton, USA.

Krasner hoped that the move would help Pollock, a struggling alcoholic, focus on his work. With a loan from famed art dealer and patron Peggy Guggenheim, the couple purchased a small cottage with a barn that would serve as their shared studio.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's house and studio, New York, USA

When the couple first moved in, the Second World War was still raging and the house had no fuel supply, running water or even a bathroom. Lee described it as nothing short of "hell, to put it mildly."

Although the artists immediately began renovations to turn the property into a functioning home and studio, no heating or electric light was installed until 1953.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's house and studio, New York, USA

Despite its rough-and-ready nature, the house served the couple’s needs and they continued to live and work there until Pollock’s death in a car crash in 1956, after which Krasner stayed on until her own passing in 1984.

Today, the house and studio have been turned into a museum, open to the public for tours. The house still contains many of the couple’s personal effects, including Pollock’s jazz collection, record player and private library.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's house and studio, New York, USA

The house itself is a very traditional farmhouse with a generous wraparound porch and this surprisingly serene bedroom.

The studio out back was once a barn for livestock, which Pollock and Krasner converted as their very first renovation project. It was there that Pollock developed his famous 'spattering' technique, which would become his calling card in later years.

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's house and studio, New York, USA

The studio is still packed with relics from the artists’ various projects, including tubes of paint, pieces of coloured glass and even a pair of Krasner’s paint-splattered work shoes.

Indeed, the floor of the studio is covered in paint splatters left by some of both Pollock’s and Krasner’s most famous works, and visitors to the museum are required to remove their shoes before entering the studio to preserve the paint.