Salvador Dalí set up home in a small fisherman’s hut in
Portlligat in 1930. By 1932, he had turned it into a simple house
fashioned out of two huts and a small annexe consisting of an
entrance, dining room, living room, workshop and bedroom. Over the
coming decades, additional huts were acquired and the structure
reformulated. Today, the property remains largely as he left it,
rammed full of surrealist artworks and cherished objets d’art.
Visitors will note the inclusion of mirrored skylights – installed
to allow Dalí to paint feet – and, outside, towers built in clay
receptacles with holes in them so that the wind whistled through
them. Every room has windows of various shapes and dimensions
framing the bay, which was a permanent point of reference in Dalí’s
work.

Claude Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny, a small village in
Upper Normandy, was home to the artist for 43 years. A bright pink
hue dominates the exterior walls, while a medley of greens, blues
and yellows (chosen by Monet to align with his favoured palette)
characterises the inside. Visiting the estate feels almost as
though you are walking through a seminal Monet painting – the
gardens, which Monet designed himself, conjure a particular
likeness. Monet’s garden consists of two parts: Clos Normand, a
flower garden of fruit trees and long-stemmed hollyhocks, in front
of the house, and a Japanese-style water garden, on the other side
of the road.

Iconic self-portraitist Frida Kahlo lived her entire life
(1907-1954) in La Casa Azul, a cobalt-blue house in the residential
neighbourhood of Coyoacán. Built by the artist’s father in 1904, La
Casa Azul was transformed into a museum in 1958, when Kahlo’s
husband, muralist Diego Rivera, decided to open the house to the
public as a tribute to her life and work. Today, the house remains
almost exactly as it was when she died. Kahlo’s art collection
peppers the walls, art supplies are scattered throughout and
portraits of her heroes, Lenin and Mao, hang over the bed.

Ernest Hemingway’s former house in Cuba, Finca Vigía is situated
in the shabby suburb of San Francisco de Paula. Now owned by the
Cuban government – supposedly confiscated from Mary Hemingway
following the death of her husband – all of the artist’s personal
possessions remain in the property. Built in 1886 by Catalan
architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer, Finca Vigía was sold to
Hemingway around 1940. It is here that the American novelist wrote
most of For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.

Barbara Hepworth, one of Britain’s most important 20th-century
artists, came to St Ives in 1939 with her then husband, fellow
artist Ben Nicholson. Ten years later, she returned to her
“spiritual home”, this time without Nicholson, and remained in St
Ives until the end of her life, living and working at Trewyn Studio
until her death in 1975. “Finding Trewyn Studio was a sort of
magic,” wrote Hepworth. “Here was a studio, a yard and garden where
I could work in open air and space.” The site is now managed by
Tate, with the gardens laid out as the artist designed them,
punctuated by her large-scale bronze works. On display alongside
Hepworth’s sculptures are paintings, drawings and archive
material.

In 1945, Jackson Pollock and fellow artist Lee Krasner married.
With a loan from self-described “art addict” Peggy Guggenheim, the
pair purchased a small house in The Springs, near East Hampton.
Soon after arriving, the newly married artists both had major
breakthroughs. It is here, in a converted storage barn, that
Pollock created his revolutionary drip paintings – evidenced in the
wooden floor, which is liberally splattered with paint. Today, the
couple’s home is preserved with all their furnishings and personal
possessions, including their record collection.

Matisse spent 37 years of his life in the south of France,
circulating in and around Nice, primarily. Known predominantly as a
painter, though also a skilled printmaker and sculptor, his mastery
of colour won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
The Matisse Museum, in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, offers a mouth-watering
taste of the artist’s life and works, from the 1890-painted Nature
morte aux livres to his famed gouache cut-outs. Another
Matisse-related pit stop to make while in the area is the Rosary
Chapel in Saint Paul de Vence – a spiritual space Matisse created
for his dedicated nurse, Monique Bourgeois.

The former home of the late filmmaker, set designer, activist
and gardener Derek Jarman, Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, is
a truly creative space. Saved from closure following a successful
Art Fund campaign in 2020 and open to the public, the
sunshine-yellow framed door and windows offer a warm welcome to
visitors. Perched on a shingle beach, the property was originally a
Victorian fisherman’s hut, which Jarman reworked during his years
here. Step inside and gain insight into his life and work, peeping
at poetry etched into panes of glass and checking out his treasured
gardening tools – there’s even a painting by film director Gus Van
Sant on display.