six of the best: Artist-themed Breaks
From Glen Feshie in Scotland (the location for Sir Edwin Landseer's Monarch Of The Glen) to the Isle of Wight's chalky Needles (depicted in JMW Turner's Moonlight on the Sea), there are scenes all over Britain that have inspired our greatest artists. Just don't be surprised if these five mini-breaks have you reaching for a paintbrush yourself.
Dedham Vale
Don't be alarmed if Flatford Mill gives you a sense of déja vu: its view across the River Stour was the inspiration for The Hay Wain, the most recognised work by one of Britain's most famed landscape artists, John Constable. The ford and the cottage are almost unchanged since the day they were painted in 1821 (you'll just have to use your imagination to add in the cart and the dog). Flatford Mill sits within the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, though this unspoiled region on the border of Essex and Suffolk is better known as Constable Country. Stay nearby in the village of Dedham at classy Maison Talbooth, a former vicarage with 12 individually-styled rooms that are each named after poets. The hotel offers a blend of country-house styling and chic, contemporary features including a spa and good-sized outdoor swimming pool. Doubles from £270, B&B. See our Dedham Vale WKND.
Sudbury, Suffolk
Just upriver from Dedham lies the pretty town of Sudbury, which was home to another great British landscape artist: Thomas Gainsborough. Born 16 miles from (and half a century before) John Constable, Gainsborough was equally inspired by his local stretch of the Stour. Its floodplain and the surrounding copses, fields and country lanes were the subject of many of his masterpieces such as Wooded Landscape with a Peasant Resting. Gainsborough often wandered the riverside meadows from his home in Sudbury: a route that art-lovers can emulate on the three-mile Meadow Walk, which is the first of three planned routes collectively known as the Gainsborough Trail. The town offers further artistic immersion at the excellent Gainsborough Museum, which is housed in what was once the artist's home. Make a weekend of it by booking into the waterfront Mill Hotel, which has double rooms overlooking the meadows from £108, B&B.
Yorkshire Wolds
For a more contemporary style of landscape painting, look further north to Yorkshire, where the artist David Hockney lived and painted. He found particular inspiration in the rolling Yorkshire Wolds, where he captured trees and scenery in his trademark bright, vibrant colours. Locations across the region are linked by the David Hockney Trail, a self-guided driving or cycling route that winds though the landscapes he loved to paint. Highlights en route include the locations of Bigger Trees and The Road Across the Wolds (among his best-known works) and pretty villages such as Millington, Warter and Malton. The latter makes a comfortable base for exploring the Wolds, especially if you snag a room at The Old Lodge. This 17th Century mansion stands in three acres of grounds and comes with a wood-panelled bar with cosy log fire, plus an open-air terrace for finer weather. Doubles from £79, excluding breakfast.
Berwick-upon-Tweed
It's not just the countryside that has moved famous artists to brush oils onto canvas. For L.S. Lowry, the gritty, industrial scenery of Northern England inspired his distinctive, urban artworks populated with crowds of his signature 'matchstick men'. Though many of his works depict the cityscapes and mills of Greater Manchester (where Lowry was born and spent most of his life), he also had a penchant for painting the streets and landmarks of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Northumberland town to which he was a frequent visitor. Spots that caught his eye are linked together by the Lowry Trail, whose information panels identify the scenes as Lowry saw them. You can stay, as Lowry did, at the Castle Hotel (from £95 per night, B&B), but far better to upgrade to The Walls, a classier option in a Georgian townhouse with bright, spacious rooms and views across the River Tweed (from £90, B&B).
Seaford Head, Sussex
Celebrate a less familiar name in the Sussex town of Seaford, where the South Downs meet the sea by ending abruptly in sheer, white cliffs. Back in the 1930s, local artist Eric Slater recreated this arresting landscape in beautiful, Japanese-style woodcuts. See the landmarks that inspired some of his Art Deco-influenced images on the Slater Trail, which loops across the chalky hump of Seaford Head. Follow the route as it sets out across the rabbit-grazed turf of the cliff tops to reveal the epic Seven Sisters marching into the distance. Just inland from the coast lies Saltmarsh Farmhouse, whose excellent café comes with an extra treat: six luxuriously stylish and comfortable bedrooms. Each one is chic yet understated, with period features and garden views and B&B rates from £150 (though it's worth splashing out on the wonderfully spacious, two-bedroom Saltwater Suite, which benefits from a private sitting room).
Guernsey
Art in the British landscape goes beyond paying tribute to home-grown talents. Over in the Channel Islands, Guernsey's Renoir Walk commemorates Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the famous French Impressionist. Launched in 2019 to mark the centenary of his death, the trail skirts the coast of Moulin Huet Bay, where Renoir spent a summer holiday in 1883. It's said that he was shocked to see naked bathers cavorting in the surf (such pastimes were forbidden in contemporary France). The coastal scenes and the people he saw there inspired him to create compositions such as Enfants au Bord de la Mer. The very spot where he set up his easel to sketch the scene is marked (along with four other locations) by a picture frame through which onlookers can share Renoir's perspective. Stay nearby at La Barbarie Hotel, a pleasant stroll away from the bay, where rooms cost from £114, B&B.