If walls could talk these art-filled hotels would have lots to say, stories of witnessing Picasso at work and welcoming some of the greatest sculptors, film directors, and writers of the past century.
Swiss-French designer Le Corbusier once said “the home should be the treasure chest of living” but these hotels and bookable villas prove it can also be the treasure chest of bygone times. These spots once welcomed acclaimed artists in troves, becoming almost Grand Salons in countryside spots and city neighbourhoods across the world. It’s now here that you can immerse yourself in the creative wealth of a gallery, all without leaving the comfort of your freshly-pressed cotton sheets.
Some of these properties are akin to works of art themselves while others pay homage to the artist’s legacy that came before them; here are the artist’s homes and haunts to have on your radar this summer.
Villa Santo Sospir, France
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French poet and playwright Jean Cocteau, father of Les Enfants Terribles, found a home in Cap-Ferrat in the South of France every summer for eleven years across the 1950s. The walls that bore witness to his mastermind artistry are found inside Villa Santo Sospir (named after the old name for this region in France), which, owned by socialite Francine Weisweiller, saw plenty era-defining creatives and figures flit through its doors, from to Marlene Dietrich to Pierre Cardin. However, it’s Jean Cocteau who tattooed his influence across the space; every wall and ceiling of the private villa is painted with over 200 of Cocteau’s imaginative work which – encouraged by his peers Matisse and Picasso – depict tales of Greek mythology and biblical stories made with vibrant colourful pigments mixed with milk to create the saturated paint. Now, decorated by Madeleine Castaing and updated by Jacques Grange, the private villa has reopened to guests and is available to rent in all its splendour.
Fife Arms, Scotland
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Cut within the rolling green land in Braemar, Scotland, Fife Arms carries almost two hundred years of Scottish and art history within its walls. Now owned by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, the co-founders of global gallery Hauser & Wirth, the hotel has become akin to a gallery itself with over 14,000 pieces of art strung across the walls, from the bedrooms to the corridors to the living spaces. While not artists themselves, the founder duo are responsible for nurturing and spotlighting some of the most influential artists of our time and throughout history. Artworks by Pablo Picasso, Louise Bourgeois (and many others) can be found across the hotel, as well as commissions made specifically for Fife Arms by artists in residence.
La Colombe d’Or, France
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What began with humble roots (a local South of France café-bar) in the 1920s has flourished into La Colombe d’Or Hotel and Restaurant over the past one hundred years. A playground for the artists of the Golden Age – many of whom used the hotel as an escape from the cities during the Second World War – the space holds many references to the artists it once played host to. Although the villa unsuspectingly sits into the Provence landscape with ivy-clad stone facades, wooden shuttered windows, and a large swimming pool, plenty of details across the interiors nod to this history; inside you’ll find vases sculpted by Picasso and paintings by Kandinsky, Delaunay, Matisse, across the bedrooms. The large blue, red, and yellow mobile designed by Alexander Calder that swings across the outdoor swimming pool has quickly become the postcard image for the hotel.
Palazzo Margherita, Italy
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A walled 15th-century Italian town called Bernalda shepherds the pale blue shuttered Palazzo Margherita, the ancestral home of film director Francis Ford Coppola, and where his also film director daughter Sofia Coppola married her husband Thomas Mars in 2011. The palazzo is now a boutique hotel where – signature to palazzo designs – nine rooms (each decorated and furnished uniquely to enhance the frescoes and tiles, and named after the family) all centre around a red parasol-filled internal courtyard. Akin to Ford Coppola’s movies, the hotel itself offers a unique stay for visitors, as each room is furnished and styled differently to enhance its original features. In a few of these rooms, a screen can be pulled down and projector switched on so you can indulge in some of the director’s screen classics while immersed in the spaces that inspired them.Â
Hotel Serras, Barcelona
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Before he went on to live in France’s idyllic southern countryside, Pablo Picasso inhabited a small loft apartment on Carrer de la Plata in Barcelona’s Ribera district. It’s here, within a tiny space, that he painted some of his most iconic early works including his 1897 Science and Charity oil painting when he was just 15 years old. While Picasso’s actual apartment no longer remains, the Serras hotel now stands in its place, complete with a rooftop bar where his abode once stood, that homages the artist. The hotel now also offers a Picasso package including the chance to paint just where Picasso used to paint before leaving the hotel for a Picasso tour of Barcelona.
The Charlie, Los Angeles, USA
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The tongue-in-cheek era of silent black and white movies probably springs to mind when Charlie Chaplin’s name is mentioned, but you can add a string of boutique hotels to the actor’s accolade too. Once the home of the poster boy of this cinema genre, The Charlie in West Hollywood includes a string of English bungalows to book, kept private by iron gates and large, pruned grounds. Los Angeles – especially its West Hollywood neighbourhood – is no stranger to these snapshots of Hollywood in its heyday, and The Charlie is proof, with exposed wooden beams, iron-cast windows, archways, and elegant furnishings across the nine suites (each named after Hollywood icons).
Lead image credit: Fife Arms
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