It is not necessary to go to a museum to experience the awe of a painting—try visiting the actual locations they were based on instead.
Kindred Spirits by Asher Brown Durand is a painting set in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Asher Brown Durand. CC0 1.0.
Museums and galleries are prime places to see great works of art. There are long lines at the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. But you do not need to be in a museum to experience a painting. Many famous works of art are based on real life locations that visitors can explore for themselves. It is often possible to experience the same emotions that the original artist felt when painting the subject. Here are 7 real life locations of famous paintings that you can visit.
1. The Dibble House, Iowa, United States
American Gothic. mark6mauno. CC BY 2.0.
Dibble House. photo librarian. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In the summer of 1930, Grant Wood was driving around Eldon, Iowa when he noticed the Dibble House. It was not a beautiful house to Wood, but he found it captivating due to the absurdity of putting a gothic-style window in such a flimsy house. He made a sketch of the house and the final product became “American Gothic”, a famed work illustrating small-town America. Today, visitors are welcome to visit the house and have their photo taken outside, usually with the provided jackets to make it look like a reenactment of the famous painting. Next door is also the American Gothic House Center, which hosts exhibits on the famous painting.
2. Arles Cafe, France
Cafe Terrace at Night. Greg_e. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Arles cafe. Greg_e. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Arles is the town most closely associated with Vincent Van Gogh. He lived there from 1888 to 1889, where he painted some of his most famous post-impressionist pieces, including the “Cafe Terrace at Night”. The setting of that work is the Cafe du Forum and is now called the Cafe La Nuit, which still exists today on the Place du Forum in Arles. That cafe was refurbished so that it looks exactly like how Van Gogh would have seen it. Gas lamps still light the site. Van Gogh also painted a companion piece of the interior of the same cafe. Today, visitors can experience the cafe and Arles much like how Van Gogh would have seen it.
3. Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States
The Oxbow. wallyg. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Mount Holyoke. pecooper98362. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Thomas Cole was one of the chief proponents of the Hudson River School, a school of art that specialized on landscape paintings in the early American republic. At that time, a uniquely American art-style was being created, and in his work “The Oxbow”, exemplifies that. That painting shows Mount Holyoke and a view that shows Americans conquering the wilderness. The view from the mountain today is much different than the one in Cole’s painting, as the area around it is much more built up, but the mountain itself is part of Skinner State Park. A road brings visitors up the mountain in the summer months and a number of hiking trails criss-cross the mountain.
4. Valley of Mexico, Mexico
The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel. profzucker. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The Valley of Mexico. Gary Denness. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Similar to the Hudson River School, art in Latin America during the 19th century was also used to inspire nationalism. Jose Maria Velasco painted a landscape of the Valley of Mexico from the hillside of Santa Isabel to exemplify that nationalism. That landscape combines pre-Columbian symbols to represent a shared Mexican heritage. That valley today is built up as it is the location of the sprawling Mexico City. However, the hills above the valley offer stunning views of the area. Desierto de los Leones National Park, located 3.2 kilometers southwest of the city, offers panoramic views that gives a glimpse of what Velasco saw when he painted “The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel”.
5. Giverny Gardens, France
Waterlilies. Art That Inspires. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Giverny gardens. Trey Ratcliff. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Claude Monet was the pioneering impressionist painter, shocking the art world with his visible brush strokes. One of his most famous works is “Water Lilies”, a collection of paintings of waterlilies in his garden in Giverny, France. Today, Monet’s home and gardens in Giverny can be toured by visitors. He had a garden called the Clos Normand in front of his home and a Japanese-inspired garden across the street, where visitors can admire its natural beauty. Much of his paintings from the “Water Lilies” series are based on his Japanese garden.
6. Mount Fuji, Japan
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. kendo_. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Mount Fuji. Trey Ratcliff. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
“The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” is arguably one of the most well-known Eastern works of art, but most people do not know that it is part of the series 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai. While in “The Great Wave”, Mount Fuji only appears as a small cone in the horizon, almost blending in with the other wave crests, in other prints of the series, Mount Fuji gets a more pronounced position. Being the highest mountain in Japan and holding a special place in Japanese culture, Mount Fuji is easily accessible to visitors. The mountain is easily viewable from the shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagoya, but for a closer look, visitors can head to the Fuji Five Lake region at the northern base of the mountain. Mount Fuji is open to climbing in the summer months on some seasonal routes.
7. The Delft House, Netherlands
The Little Street. Gandalf’s Gallery. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Delft House. 1Veertje. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Johannes Vermeer only has less than 40 paintings still in existence, but he is still considered one of the greatest Dutch painters. His painting “The Little Street” attracted researchers trying to pinpoint its exact location for centuries. Now, art historians and other researchers believe that the site of 40-42 Vlamingstraat, in Delft, Netherlands, is the location of the work. Researchers used tax records to narrow down the location in Vermeer’s hometown of Delft. The original buildings in the painting no longer exist, but a gate still exists. It is not possible to enter the buildings, but visitors can still imagine what the area was like in the 17th century when Vermeer worked.
Bryan Fok
Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.