Atelier Architecture: What 8 buildings from famous paintings would look like in real life
Everybody wonders whether the real Mona Lisa’s smile was so enigmatic, or whether the figure in The Scream was actually just a bored spaniel. But architecture in paintings can be just as mysterious. An artist might express hidden themes and meanings through the way they portray their buildings or hint at impenetrable spaces that can only be explored in the imagination.
For today’s artistically-inclined architects, the existence of such paintings is a gift: the chance to see forgotten structural styles and themes through the eyes of a genius. For everyone else, imagining how those buildings might look in real life takes a bit more work.
This got us thinking, what did these buildings from famous paintings look like in the real world? What if, instead of a painting, the artists were to have taken photographs?
For this project, we trawled through well-known paintings by famous artists around the world and identified 8 different buildings:
Japanese homes – Evening Snow at Kanbara, Utagawa Hiroshige (1833-1834)
Cottage – The Cottage, Vincent Van Gogh (1885)
Victorian mansion – House by the Railroad, Edward Hopper (1925)
Mortgage Calculator
=> How much house can you afford? Use our calculator
House – Houses At Falaise In The Fog, Claude Monet (1885)
House – Little House by the Road, Bob Ross (1986)
Traditional pueblo buildings – Taos Storytellers, R. C. Gorman (1993)
Farmhouses – Palmeiras, Tarsila do Amaral (1925)
Church – Hungarian Village Church, Amrita Sher-Gil (1932)
The project was commissioned by HomeAdvisor, with the objective: to inspire homeowners by introducing new ways of thinking about their homes. With this project we opened the door to a new source of design inspiration: from famous paintings that are usually seen hanging in art galleries.
Atelier Décor: What 6 rooms from famous paintings would look like in real life
Paintings of historical interiors are fascinating hybrid images — midway between the work of a great artist’s imagination and a document of the past.
Famous artists often worked from ‘real life’ scenarios. Therefore, paintings like Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Bedroom’ or Kandinsky’s ‘My Dining Room’ could be labeled as historical records. They tell us as much about the painter’s state of mind as they do about home décor trends of the 19th or early 20th century.
For today’s artistically-inclined interior designers, the existence of such paintings is a gift: the chance to see forgotten furniture and color combinations through the eyes of a genius. For everyone else, imagining how those rooms might look in real life takes a bit more work.
This got us thinking, what did these household settings from famous paintings look like in the real world? What if instead of a painting, the artists were to have taken a photograph?
For this project, we trawled through well-known paintings by famous artists around the world and identified 6 different rooms around the home:
Bedroom – The Bedroom, Vincent Van Gogh (1888)
Conservatory – The Sun Shine on the Corner, Grant Wood (1928)
Dining Room – Interior (My Dining Room), Wassily Kandinsky (1909)
Kitchen – Interior, Konstantin Korovin (1913)
Living Room – Interior with restful paintings, Roy Lichtenstein (1991)
Sitting Room – Empress Alexandra Feodorovna’s Sitting Room, Cottage Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia, Eduard Petrovich Hau (1855)
Images courtesy of HomeAdvisor
The project was commissioned by HomeAdvisor, as part of a series of visual content campaigns we’re working on together that have one key objective: to inspire homeowners by introducing new ways of thinking about the spaces in their homes. With this project, we opened the door to a new source of home décor inspiration: famous paintings that are usually seen hanging in an art gallery.
The team that collaborated to create a realistic representation of each painting included specialist researcher Charlie Ashton, managing editor Jonathan Addy, CG artist, and interior designer Andrey Barinov and art director Povilas Daknys.
About HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor provides homeowners the tools and resources they need to complete their home improvement, maintenance, and repair projects. With HomeAdvisor, homeowners can view average project costs, find local prescreened home professionals, and instantly book appointments online. In 2017, HomeAdvisor merged with Angie’s List to help form ANGI Homeservices Inc.
About NeoMam Studios
NeoMam Studios is a creative studio based in the UK on a mission to create digital content that online audiences will want to share.
