19 Real Locations That Inspired Famous Paintings
During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh had no inkling that his work would become one of the world’s most famous paintings. Far from it. But that didn't stop the Postimpressionist artist from sharing his musings on art with friends and family. On June 5, 1890, Vincent van Gogh sat to write a letter to his younger sister, Wilhelmina. The Dutch artist was less than two months from a gunshot to the abdomen that would tragically end his life. But at the time he sat to write his sister, Vincent’s focus was squarely on the sites he intended to paint within the French town he’d recently moved into—and where, ultimately, he would be buried. “With that I have a larger painting of the village church—an effect in which the building appears purplish against a sky of a deep and simple blue of pure cobalt, the stained glass windows look like ultramarine blue patches, the roof is violet and in part orange. In the foreground a little flowery greenery and some sunny pink sand." The church Van Gogh describes transformed into his masterpiece, The Church at Auvers (1890). Hordes of visitors travel to Paris’s Musée d’Orsay each day to see the famous painting. Yet what many of those visitors may not realize is that were they to take a train one hour north of Paris to the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, they could see the very church itself.
It’s not always so simple to pinpoint the location of famous paintings. Much of that is due to the fact that in the years leading up to Impressionism (1860s), portraiture was more in vogue than landscapes (think Jean-Léon Gérôme, and his painting Bashi-Bazouk). Add to that the fact that landscapes that were painted in the 19th century by such luminaries as Thomas Cole were more of a backdrop to a greater political message (as with Cole’s tour de force The Course of Empire, a series of five paintings depicting the rise and fall of an empire, witnessed through the unattached prism of nature). Ultimately, these well-known creatives were artists, not topographers.
Yet, with the founding of Impressionism, and the advent of the paint tube—an invention courtesy of the American painter John G. Rand—artists were afforded the ability to walk into nature to paint the very scenes we can venture into today. What’s more, with the invention and wide distribution of a small metal device called the ferrule, art was able to bend to the Impressionists’ wishes. Before the ferrule, crafting paintbrushes was a time-consuming and expensive operation involving the binding of hog, pig, boar, and horse hair to a wood handle. Now, the metal ferrule could be flattened, allowing for flat bristles that could create small, short, and dashing results on the canvas.
In the span of art history, however, the window of painting lush landscapes en plein air didn’t stay open for very long. Just before the outbreak of the First World War, Cubism broke away from conventions, forcing art toward abstraction, making the actual locations of any painting extremely difficult to discern.
Below, from Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône to Monet’s Water Lilies, AD lists the locations around the world to visit, should you want to see your favorite paintings play out before your eyes.
Photo: Universal History Archive / Getty Images (left) / iStock / Getty Images (right)1/19Café Terrace at Night by Vincent van Gogh (Arles, France)
For over a year, Vincent van Gogh lived in the French city of Arles. It was there that he produced some of his most celebrated work. Unfortunately, it was also in Arles where the post-Impressionist artist suffered his most famous mental breakdown, one that culminated in the severing of his left ear. Café Terrace at Night was painted in the early fall of 1888, some four months before the ear-cutting incident in December. Today, visitors can still sit at the very café Van Gogh immortalized through his work.
Photo: The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY (left) / David Litschel / Alamy (right)2/19Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth (Cushing, Maine)
Completed in 1948 by American artist Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World has become one of the most recognizable paintings of the 20th century. The artist was spending the summer living near the home depicted in his most famous painting. Wyeth noticed the woman (Anna Christina Olson, who suffered from a degenerative nerve disease) crawling toward her home. The painting shows both subjects in opposite corners, allowing the viewer to take in the great yawn of distance separating them. Today, Olson House, which is located in the Maine town of Cushing (75 miles southwest of Bangor), is open to the public, and was restored to match its appearance in the painting after it was listed as a National Historic Landmark.
Photo: Print Collector/Getty Images (left) / Loop Images/Getty Images (right)3/19The Hay Wain by John Constable (Flatford Mill, England)
Painted in 1821 by John Constable, The Hay Wain depicts a scene along the River Stour in England, which runs between Suffolk and Essex. In the middle of the painting, three horses pull a wooden cart through shallow water. The painting was first exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1821, but failed to find a buyer. Yet, times have changed. In 2005, a poll conducted by BBC Radio 4 Today voted The Hay Wain as the second greatest painting in Britain (top prize went to The Fighting Temeraire by J. M. W. Turner). The Hay Wain currently hangs in The National Gallery in London.
Photo: Art Library / Alamy (left) / Brian Jannsen / Alamy (right)4/19Au Lapin Agile by Pablo Picasso (Paris)
At the turn of the century, Pablo Picasso moved from Barcelona to Paris hell-bent on veering the course of art to his will. In the end, he succeed. But it didn't come easy for the Spanish-born artist. He spent much of his early years struggling as a poor artist in the Bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre. It was there that Picasso and his creative friends would spend countless hours in the bar Lapin Agile. In the painting (left), Picasso can be seen closest to the viewer in his signature harlequin alter ego. In the background is the bar owner, Frédéric Gérard, to whom Picasso gifted the painting (Gérard sold the painting in 1911, much to Picasso’s displeasure). Between the two men is Germaine Pichot, the one-time obsession of Carlos Casagemas, Picasso’s best friend who died by suicide in 1901 after multiple rejections from Pichot.
Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images (left) / Nick Mafi (right)5/19Mont Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cézanne (Aix-en-Provence, France)
Perhaps more than any subject, Paul Cézanne was drawn to Mont Sainte-Victoire. It’s estimated by some art historians that the French artist painted the landscape more than 60 times. What Cézanne loved of the mountain was the way its mood changed over the course of a day—even over the course of an hour—all due to the way the sunlight struck it. Today, visitors can sit inside several fancy restaurants with an open-air back wall facing the limestone mountain, allowing diners to take in the many shades of color that reflect off Mont Sainte-Victoire over the course of a meal.
Photo: Peter Barritt / Alamy (left) / E.J. Baumeister Jr. / Alamy (right)6/19The Church at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh (Auvers-sur-Oise, France)
During his short stint living in Auvers-sur-Oise, Van Gogh was, at times, completing a painting per day. Visitors who take the hour-long train ride north of Paris can walk through a town that is filled with landmarks the Dutch master recreated with the flick of a wrist. The Church at Auvers, one of Van Gogh’s most famous works, was painted during the final months of his life. The church itself is located very close to the artist’s final resting place.
Photo: Heritage Images / Getty Images (left) / Kenzo Tribouillard / Getty Images (right)7/19Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet (Le Havre, France)
At the beginning of 1873, Impressionism was a term no one had ever uttered before. By the end of that year, it was a movement bound to change the course of history. The two major reasons for this was Claude Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise, which depicts boats entering the port at Le Havre in northern France, and the critic Louis Leroy’s opinion of the piece, in which he surmised, “Impression I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it—and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.” Thus, the term Impressionism was coined.
Photo: Fine Art / Getty Images (left) / Bas Czerwinski / Getty Images (right)8/19The Little Street by Johannes Vermeer (Delft, Holland)
There is still much debate over the exact location of Johannes Vermeer’s famous work, The Little Street, completed in 1658. Many art historians, however, have agreed that the painting mimics a street scene in Delft, the Dutch artist’s hometown. Much credibility was given to this theory when it was understood that Vermeer’s mother and sister lived on the same canal, just opposite of the scene he created.
Photo: Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls, 1826, oil on canvas, 25¼ × 35¼ in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art,Hartford, CT, Bequest of Daniel Wadsworth, 1848.15 (right) / Courtesy of Nick Mafi (left)9/19Kaaterskill Falls by Thomas Cole (Eastern Catskill Mountains, New York)
Born in England, Thomas Cole became a seminal figure in the canon of early American artists. He was, after all, the founder of the Hudson River School. Along with a group of landscape painters that emerged in New York around the mid-19th century, Cole immortalized the American landscape during a time when the industrial revolution was plundering natural resources. Cole’s paintings, including Kaaterskill Falls, can be viewed as manifestos in which the artist poses a question to all Americans: Is the divine power of nature or the manmade prophecy of capitalism the viable path for our young nation?
Photo: Heritage Images/Getty Images (left) / Travelpix/Getty Images (right)10/19The Trevi Fountain in Rome (Pope Benidict XIV Visits the Trevi Fountain in Rome) by Giovanni Paolo Panini (Rome, Italy)
Before Rome's Trevi Fountain became a gathering point for visitors to throw a coin over the left shoulder, it was painted by the talented hand of Giovanni Paolo Panini. Living in the 18th century as an architect and a painter, Panini was best-known for vistas of Rome. By using exuberant detail and satuarted, dramatic colors, this Baroque-era painter moved viewers who studied his painting of The Trevi Fountain in Rome (Circa 1750). The painting, which is currently housed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, depicts the visit of Pope Benedict XIV in July 1744 to the Trevi Fountain. Panini even depicted himself in the right side of the work, kneeling before the Pope.
Photo: Hulton Archive / Alamy (left) / Danita Delimont / Alamy (right)11/19The Langlois Bridge at Arles by Vincent van Gogh (Arles, France)
While Van Gogh was shunned by many locals (some art historians have contended that a petition was once circulated for his removal from Arles), he still spent a great deal of time including them in the everyday scenes he would produce. Here, a group of local women are doing their laundry in a canal spanned by the Langlois Bridge, a structure that still stands today.
Photo: Ian Dagnall / Alamy (left) / Neil McAllister / Alamy (right)12/19Water Lilies by Claude Monet (Giverny, France)
A little over an hour to the northwest of Paris is the town of Giverny. It would certainly not be on many people’s must-see lists had Claude Monet not moved there in 1883. At his beautiful home (which can also be toured today), the French-born Impressionist artist created some of his most celebrated works, including the Water Lilies series. The gardens, pond, and bridges were all located in Monet’s backyard, which allowed him ample time to recreate the scene, which he did some 250 times.
Photo: Peter Horree / Alamy (left) / Didier Zylberbyng / Alamy (right)13/19Le Moulin de la Galette by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)
In February 1886, Vincent van Gogh abruptly moved from Antwerp, Belgium, to Paris. The Dutch artist moved into his brother Theo’s home. We know that Theo did not take well to the new guest, as Vincent rattled off a letter before leaving to look at paintings in a museum. “Don’t be cross with me that I’ve come all of a sudden,” Vincent wrote in a note. “I’ve thought about it so much and I think we’ll save time this way. Will be at the Louvre from midday, or earlier if you like.” While in Paris, Vincent started first truly pushing himself to experiment with bolder colors. He would walk the streets of his new city, painting the many scenes he encountered. One was Le Moulin de la Galette, which was located in Montmartre, the same neighborhood his brother lived in at the time.
Photo: Urban Images / Alamy (left) / Getty Images (right)14/19American Gothic by Grant Wood (Eldon, Iowa)
Painted in 1930, Grant Wood’s American Gothic exemplifies what the American artist is perhaps best known for: depicting the rural American Midwest. Located in Eldon, Iowa, a town roughly 100 miles southeast of Des Moines, the painting depicts a farmer standing next to his daughter. In the background is the Dibble House, a small white home he saw and knew he wanted to paint. The models for the painting, however, weren’t farmhands. Rather, far from it. The woman was actually Wood’s younger sister, while the man was the Wood family dentist.
Photo: Universal Images Group / Getty Images (left) / Getty Images (right)15/19Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh (Arles, France)
Art lovers can deduce that the location Van Gogh painted in his iconic Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888) was one he visited often, as it was roughly 500 feet from the Yellow House, the artist’s home during his stint in Arles. The painting was done during a productive burst for the artist, mere months before a mental breakdown that culminated in his ear being cut off and his entrance to a mental asylum in St. Remy, France. Before that, however, Vincent summed up his famous painting in a letter to his younger brother, Theo: “In short the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet. The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colorful figurines of lovers in the foreground.”
Photo: Vincent van Gogh. The Olive Trees. Saint Rémy, June-July 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 5/8 x 36" (72.6 x 91.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mrs. John Hay Whitney Bequest (left) / Alamy (right)16/19The Olive Trees by Vincent van Gogh (Saint-Rémy, France)
Painted while he was a patient at a mental aslyum in Saint-Rémy, France, Van Gogh’s Olive Trees displays the artist’s love of and deep connection with nature. In a letter to his younger brother Theo, the artist wrote of the olive trees: “… the rustle of the olive grove has something very secret in it, and immensely old. It is too beautiful for us to dare to paint it or to be able to imagine it.”
Photo: Getty Images (left) / Getty Images (right)17/19Rouen Cathedral by Claude Monet (Rouen, France)
Painted in the early 1890’s, Monet’s Rouen Cathedral is one of the best examples of the Frenchman’s artistic genius. The exploration of scientific principles has been enormously important to
artists. So much so that, in many historical instances, art has preceded scientific advancement. For example, roughly 30 years before Albert Einstein famously proposed that light was not a
continuous wave, the Impressionists were absorbed by the interplay of light and shadow on seemingly every earthly object. In Monet’s Rouen Cathedral (painted across the street from the cathedral in the artist’s temporary studio), one senses a blurriness in the atmosphere by way of defused contour lines. What Monet’s painting demonstrates so well is a sensation we all experience at some point, often without being aware of it; that the experience is not so much the object, but the impact of the light on the object.
Photo: Getty Images (left) / Alamy (right)18/19Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (Laterina, province of Arezzo, Italy)
Along with The Starry Night, The Last Supper, and Guernica, perhaps no painting is more famous than Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. With her mysterious smile, three-quarter pose, and inclusion of the subject’s hands (a rarity at the time for any portrait), it’s easy to ignore the painting’s background. But it’s there that, in 2023, historians believed to have unlocked the location of the iconic artwork. Italian art historian Silvano Vinceti came to the conclusion that the Romito di Laterina bridge in the province of Arezzo is “unmistakably” the bridge in the background. Visible just over Mona Lisa’s right shoulder, four arches of a bridge look identical to the bridge still seen today. What’s more, records suggest that da Vinci would have spent time in the area during his adult lifetime.
Photo: UIG / Getty Images (left) / Nick Mafi (right)19/19Wheatfield With Crows by Vincent van Gogh (Auvers-sur-Oise, France)
It’s impossible to know if Van Gogh’s Wheatfield With Crows (1890) was the artist’s final painting (namely due to the ominous crows flying in the wind from an impending storm in the distance). What we do know for sure, however, are two facts. First, the painting was completed at the very end of his brief life (Van Gogh died at the age of 37, a decade after becoming an artist). And second, that the wheat fields depicted in the painting are actually located right behind the cemetery wall where Van Gogh’s tombstone lies. His brother Theo—who died less than a year after his older brother, due to complications stemming from syphilis—is buried at Vincent's side.
