These museums — each with its own connection to the artists’ colonies of their region — bring together paintings, stories and landscapes that shaped European art history.

Artists’ colonies have had very different fates. Some have grown into towns or cities, leaving little trace of their artistic past. Others have barely changed at all — and walking through them still feels like stepping into a painting.

Yet even where the village atmosphere has faded, the art lives on. Some of these places are home to outstanding museums with remarkable collections of works by the artists who once lived and worked there.

Museums in urban or changed settings:
Heikendorf, Museumsberg Flensburg, Overbeck Museum Bremen-Vegesack, Singer Laren, Katwijks Museum, The Faaborg Museum, Kronberger Malerkolonie,

Museums still surrounded by a picturesque village and natural atmosphere:
Barbizon, Worpswede, Dachau, Murnau, Usedom, Ahrenshoop, Nymindegab, Moret-sur-Loing, Domburg,