What a lovely title for armchair travelers who enjoy art. In this book, visit London with Whistler; Suffolk with Constable; St Ives with Barbara Hepworth; Guernica with Picasso; Giverny with Monet; Brussels with Magritte,; Florence with Michelangelo, Oslo with Munch; Polynesia with Gauguin; New York with Basquiat and more.

This title begins with an informative introduction on artists, the places that had meaning to them and the ways in which those places were interpreted in their art. Following this the sketches begin. Each is accompanied by an illustration; this is not a reproduction of the artist’s work but rather a rendition of the place by the book’s author. Each essay gives information about both the place over time and the artist. Readers may then well be inspired to look up the specific art works mentioned.

This is not a scholarly tome but a pleasant diversion. It offers a chance to contemplate places and art from one’s home and to enjoy spending time with artists both already loved and those new to the reader.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

A shame that I.could only download this onto my app as I couldn't read the text, but I did manage to see the pictures which were absolutely stunning.
The artists style is simple but incredibly effective.
This will be one to look out for.

I love the amount of information and history in this book. The artwork was also beautiful. I enjoy artwork and art history so this was a delightful and informative book. The only thing that I felt was missing was that the original art that is being referenced was not shown. I'm aware that this may have been for legal reasons but I spent some of the time that I was reading looking up the originals of the paintings. Other than that, this book was wonderful and incredibly well written.

Artistic Places contains beautiful illustrations of places that inspired artists accompanied by information about the place and the artists inspired by them.

This was such a creative book! It was so interesting to read through and see the spots that inspired artists. Places around the world that inspired Klimt, Munch, Picasso, and O'Keefe were a few of the featured destinations that I particularly enjoyed. Reading an art historian's perspective was fascinating when it came to examining how the locations featured inspired the work of great painters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is just beautiful - unfortunately I had real issues downloading and reading the text (I was using the Bluefire reading app and NetGalley shelf) the idea though is brilliant and what I could read was very well written, enjoyable and informative.

You'd really have to read this book in print form to truly appreciate and enjoy it. The cover is gorgeous, I'd be immediately drawn to it if I saw it sitting on the shelf.

The illustrations are very pretty and pleasing, and the colour palette used is bright and welcoming. I especially enjoyed the reimagined artworks of the different locations.

There is a great balance of text and imagery, with a generous amount of both to please both history readers and those just here to look at the pretty art.

Thank you so much to The Quarto Group/White Lion Publishing for allowing me access to a free e-copy, in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful collection of places each artist painted. It gives insights to the artist’s interpretation, why they chose the place, the view they had envisioned! Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Quarto Publishing Group for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.

The latest volume in this occasional series from these creators takes us armchair travellers to places featured in art – some that we may never fully see on canvas, some that were inspiration to sculptures, and some that were so successfully embodied by an artistic talent it feels we've been there before. And so we begin with central London, Constable Country and St Ives (for the Hepworths), before leaving the UK and first hitting on a scrap of Portuguese coast where Paula Rego found something to imitate. The visuals here are wholly the creative team's efforts, so it's going to annoy some people that we don't get a look at the specific Rego painting featured in the writing. Instead we get a snapshot of what it's like to witness the general locale as a tourist now, and the design never once tries to mimic or pastiche the artworks, but to respond to a 2020s view, rendered in the established style of prior books by this partnership.

That all may make this sound a little inconsequential, and not ideal for art-lovers. Yet, even when we go to Giverny, knowing full well what the paintings look like and having a very clear picture of what getting there would give us, it's still interesting to read these brief postcard-styled entries. We're there, too, off our own bat, with walks to walk and buildings to visit, and not crammed in between six thousand coach loads of Japanese tourists. Some entries sounded too close to a trashy magazine article (the juxtaposition of Paul Klee's, er, difficult art with the "ooh, you can buy this, and eat that, and drink that!" yack is really quite jarring), but on the whole I'm always happy to travel by proxy in the hands of these guides.

I received an advance copy of, Artistic Places, by Susie Hodge. I loved the illustrations in this book. It has pictures of famous paintings, and gives you the background on the place/destination/location.

A beautiful and informative collection of art and places! This is such a great collection of art pieces and the info on the artists and places was such a nice read! I think this would make a great read for anyone who loves art, places, and exploring!

*Thanks Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This book is so lovely and perfectly put together. It’s a collection of places that are known for their beauty and artistic inspiration. Beautifully crafted and illustrated, I can wholeheartedly recommend to all.

When I saw the cover for Artistic Places I knew I had to read it. I’m someone who loves travel and loves art to the point that I have literally planned vacations to Europe around the art museums I wanted to visit. I loved reading about the places I have visited (London, Giverny, Florence, Venice, Oslo, etc.) and have added a few more to my list thanks to this book (I really want to go roam around Lake Attersee where Klimt painted).

The book is roughly 50/50 split between illustrations and text. The text was easy to read and well organized. There was some information for travelers in the text (like how to get to Giverny from Paris or how to reserve a slot to visit Georgia O’Keefe’s house) and a little bit of each city’s history, but the main focus was the art and artists.

The illustrations by Amy Girmes are stunning. I liked that there was a good mix of one page and two page pictures. I also enjoyed the nods to the artists themselves found within some of the works. While illustrations were absolutely beautiful, I did find myself frustrated by the lack of depictions of the works described. While I was familiar with 18 of the main 25 artists featured, I was not familiar enough with the remaining seven and numerous other mentioned in passing to fully “get” what the author was describing. A few I Googled as I was reading and found that I actually was familiar with their works, but couldn’t connect them to the artist’s name. This is not a book for someone without a knowledge of art history.

As with most art history books, this one is very euro-centric. Only seven of the locations featured are outside of Europe and only three of the 25 main artists are not white. I know that much of art history as a discipline is focused on Europe, but there are so many non-Europeans place and artists that have been featured.

Thank you to White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pros: Although I have not been able to physically travel during the pandemic, I’ve used books to mentally travel. This book is perfect for mentally traveling when we can’t physically travel. In another life, I would have been an art history major, so this book about the places that inspired artists’ art was a fascinating read. The illustrator’s illustrations are wonderful, and the author provides detailed and well-researched descriptions of each location.

Cons: Some readers might pick up this book wanting photographs rather than illustrations or thinking they were going to see the resulting pieces of art that were inspired by the locations. I look at that as an opportunity to look up photos online and to learn even more about the locations and art mentioned in this book.

One frustration about the reading experience was how this book was formatted in the NetGalley app. Although I liked being able to see the illustration of the location next to the description of the location, it made for difficult reading. Lots of zooming in was required. That being said, this is obviously a book that is meant to be enjoyed in print, so I understand that PDF was not the intended format for reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quatro Publishing Group - White Lion for the opportunity to read this book!

Gorgeous illustrations, but unable to download text. I have had this problem with other titles in this series