Artists at Home

by Susie Hodge

Take a look inside the homes of some of your favourite artists and explore how each one reflected their spirit and creativity.

From William Morris  and Pablo Picasso  to Georgia O’Keeffe  and  Frida Kahlo , Artists at Home  showcases the quiet retreats, creative hubs, lifelong homes, and holiday escapes of key artistic figures. Author Susie Hodge introduces readers to each artist's life and work, placing the significance of the home at the heart of their practice before exploring how each residency both reflected and inspired the artist’s creative output.

By delving into their homes – the architecture, interiors, the lives lived there, and the work created there – we can see these artists’ private spaces as reflections of their artistic output. For these inspiring people , homes are places where the boundaries between work, creativity and daily life are indistinct – they are as much as reflection of their artistic intention as the great artworks that made their name. 

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book giving you a glimpse into the homes of artists. It allows you to see where they lived and sometimes the spaces where they created their work. The photos are beautiful. I’ve been to the homes of Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin and Gustave Moreau and was thrilled to see they were included. I was less familiar with several of the artists chosen or was unaware that their homes exist for touring. I’ve added a few to my list for future exploration. The narrative gives information about the artist and their time in the residence. I enjoyed learning about both. To me the homes also capture the time period when the artist lived.

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely hardcover book with full-color pictures of the artist's homes, surrounding open spaces and architecture along with a brief essay on each artist - artists such as Renoir, Picasso, O'Keefe, Barbara Hepworth, etc. We see how the artists have created their homes, what they have used to build, accent, enhance, and gardens and other spaces that serve as a further illustration of their creative talents. My only (very small) niggle is that the cover choice is a bit ... dull compared to some of the extraordinary pictures within. Great book.

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a beautifully-illustrated hardcover book of artists' homes, the places that they lived in, worked in, often decorating or designing the building as well. Some of the artists are no longer with us -- J.M.W. Turner, Picasso, Dali, Georgia O'Keefe -- but their places still abide, and the reader gets a sense of their personalities lingering still. It's as if the reader has been an invited guest; art being a visual medium, the book is mostly pictures, but its notes still inform what we see. It's possible to derive a sense of the artists' personae, and art, whether in beautifully-restored living spaces or the often-cluttered work areas. The photos are well-chosen and high quality, and the book is a pleasure, an inspiration and a learning experience. Highly recommend.

(My copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artists at Home is just that, a book about 20th century artists and photos of their homes and living spaces. Along with photos of each artist's person and home is a biography of his/her life including family, lovers and anything of note from their life. The bios are not overly long, and are interesting and informative enough to make this a great introduction to many great artists. Great coffee table book!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's normally once a year I turn to this author to enlighten me; chance has arisen that it's twice in less than a fortnight. Here there is no art on display (or at least, not in anything like ideal situations), and little in the way of discussing art and art styles and movements. This, as it says on the tin, takes us to where famous (and less well-known) creatives rested their head. We start with Turner, in a pleasant and sunlit London home, but he never worked there, beyond storing stuff he took to sketch with in the gardens and environs – he could afford a second house and studio closer to town. Here is the first woman ever in France known to buy her own home from her own income, replete with copious stuffed animals to this day, to add to the menagerie she shared the place with.

What we get for every entry is six, eight or ten pages, with some full-page or -spread images, and just enough text to whet the appetite for a visit (details of entry not forthcoming, unfortunately). The text tells us who we're thinking of, gives them a potted biography in relation to the building, and some reference to the layout where relevant. Did it have a studio, and was it an adaptation, stuck on top, or built elsewhere on a ripe estate? And, of course, did the family own it, did the art pay for it, or how was it come by? Did it feature a mothballed seaside souvenir shop?

I can see some seeing this as too trivial – it may matter not where certain people lived. But I would argue the literary equivalent would matter – "Waiting for Godot" ends up a very different piece if written in a dungeon, overlooking a duck-filled stream or scribbled in fragments on the #76 bus. And so the artist's home must have some kind of influence on their output – is it homely, elaborate, utilitarian, shared or isolation-giving? You can't tell me "The Scream" was painted to the song of a curlew – it's got to be shrieking gulls and more instead.

The hiccup is that the image is allowed to dominate, and when you get images after the text (and quote) is over you cannot feel sure (when reading this digitally at least) if it's what you've just seen or ready for who you're about to meet. More and better captioning would have helped somewhat. But this brings many semi-unknown artists to our attention, and brings their life to our mind as a further layer on our interest in them. What I found here was something to browse at leisure and warmly appreciate – a strong four stars.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very nosy when it comes to peering into people's houses, so in that respect, this was a great book. Lots of full colour, detailed pictures of artists' houses. Minimal text with a potted history of the artist's life and whatever connection they had to the house they lived in accompanies the pictures. It's glossy, it's beautiful but on the whole it wasn't for me. There were precious few women artists here, and a lot of establishment figures. In many cases I struggled to see the importance of the house they lived in with regard to the work they produced. Of course, just as a woman's sex was a bar to her career as an artist for much of art history, she may also have found it equally difficult to be a home owner. On the other hand, we know that for a long time, many women artist's chose to depict the domestic sphere, simply because it was available to them. I would have liked to have seen more discussion and illustration of this in the book. The book took the safe route. It felt like something you'd buy someone as a gift if you didn't know them well but knew they liked 'art'.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you ever wonder about the home life of some of your favorite artists? Would you like to peek into their environments? If the answer is yes, this book will most certainly be one to look at. Just some of the artists included in this wide ranging title are Rosa Bonheur, Auguste Rodin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant, Frida Kahlo; there are thirty places to visit in all.

For each artist, there is some text and a few pages of photos. Anyone who likes visiting historic homes will be entranced by this title. I know that I was.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.

[AnnieM · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely beautiful coffee table book with short bios of artists and stunning photographs of where they lived and worked. I am familiar with about 20 of the 30 artists shown so not only was I thrilled to see inside artist's homes and studios, I was happy to learn about unfamiliar artists too. This book would make a great gift for art lovers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be such a cool coffee table book. The pictures are stunning, the stories are interesting.
I'd like if there was a larger mix of artists but I was happy with the ones there too.

#arc
#netgalley
#artistsathome

[Helen Leighton-Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Takes a look into a large number of artists' studios from across the world. Some I'd seen before or visited, but others were completely new. It's so interesting to see into the working environment of the artist when you know their work well.

[Suzanne Pender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic photo book focusing on the homes and studios of over twenty artists including James Ensor, Suzanne Valadon, Otto Dix, Gustav Moreau, Frederic Lord Leighton, Picasso, and William Morris. Gorgeous views into these interiors give further insights into the artists’ lives and working styles.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating anthology of pictures and text, giving insights into how a wide range of artists handled the meeting points between work and home life. A book to savour.

[Kristin C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I always love to see the personal spaces that inspire creatives. I've been to a number of the homes in this book and it's been incredibly fun to revisit them!

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book could have been a lot better, the photographs weren't that great.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information. Beautiful photos.

[Mag · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5