Cottagecore decor: 12 paintings for a country cottage
Carl Larsson’s red cottage, Cézanne’s tulips, Hokusai’s hens and a Courbet meadow: twelve gentle, sunlit pictures for a home that dreams of the country.
Cottagecore is a dream of a slower life: a cottage with a garden, flowers on the windowsill, apples on the table and hens in the yard. The pictures that suit it are gentle and sunlit, full of flowers, gardens and simple country days.
Here are twelve real masterpieces for that kind of home, in three moods: cottages and gardens, flowers on the table, and meadows and farmyards. Each is shown with its colour palette, and each can be ordered as a print.
Cottages and gardens
Red cottages, open windows and summer gardens.
1. The Cottage (A Home)
Carl Larsson, The Cottage (A Home), 1899. Watercolour. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Carl Larsson painted his own cottage at Sundborn for his book A Home, published in 1899. The garden has grown wild around the red walls, and the family cat suns itself on the roof.
The perfect cottagecore picture: red, green and sunshine.
2. Flowers on the Windowsill. From A Home
Carl Larsson, Flowers on the Windowsill. From A Home, 1894. Watercolour. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Another page from A Home: one of Larsson’s daughters waters the geraniums on the windowsill, in a room full of light and trailing plants.
Sage, pink and terracotta for a kitchen or a sunny bedroom.
3. Farmhouse
Hilma af Klint, Farmhouse, 1891. Oil on canvas.
Long before her famous abstractions, Hilma af Klint painted the Swedish countryside. This farmhouse of 1891 shows her as a gentle, careful painter of light and flowers.
Soft blue and terracotta for a calm country room.
4. Flora Awakening the Flowers
Arnold Böcklin, Flora Awakening the Flowers, 1876.
Arnold Böcklin painted Flora, goddess of flowers, waking the sleeping spring in 1876. Little cherubs stir among the ivy as the first leaves open.
A fairy tale picture for a cottagecore bedroom.
Flowers on the table
Bouquets, apples and kitchen tables.
5. Karin Peeling Apples
Carl Larsson, Karin Peeling Apples, 1904.
Carl Larsson painted his wife Karin peeling apples in 1904. Karin designed the textiles and furniture that made their house so famous.
Pale green, cream and apple red for a cottage kitchen.
6. The Vase of Tulips
Paul Cezanne, The Vase of Tulips, c. 1890. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
Paul Cézanne painted this bouquet of tulips around 1890, giving a simple vase of flowers the weight and calm of a landscape.
Soft blue, green and coral for a breakfast nook.
7. Vase of Roses
Thomas Addison Richards, Vase of Roses, c. 1865. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums.
Thomas Addison Richards painted this vase of garden roses around 1865, each petal catching a gentle light.
Rose pink and moss green for a cottagecore bedroom.
8. Still Life with Flowers
Henri Fantin-Latour, Still Life with Flowers, 1881. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
Henri Fantin-Latour was the great flower painter of his age. He painted this loose summer bouquet in 1881.
Soft, faded colours for a dresser or a bedside wall.
Meadows and farmyards
Cows, hens and long summer fields.
9. Young Ladies of the Village
Gustave Courbet, Young Ladies of the Village, 1851–52. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Gustave Courbet painted his three sisters in a valley near his home town of Ornans in 1851 to 1852, giving alms to a little cowherd.
Fresh greens and sky blue for a sunny country room.
10. For to Be a Farmer's Boy
Winslow Homer, For to Be a Farmer's Boy, 1887. Transparent and opaque watercolor, with rewetting, blotting, and scraping, heightened with gum glaze, over graphite, on thick, rough-textured ivory wove paper (lower edge trimmed). Art Institute of Chicago.
Winslow Homer painted this watercolour in 1887. Its title comes from an old English folk song about a boy who wants to be a farmer’s boy.
Golden greens for a hallway or a reading corner.
11. Chickens and Asiatic Dayflowers
Katsushika Hokusai, Chickens and Asiatic Dayflowers, 1832. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Hokusai made this print of a rooster and hen among blue dayflowers in 1832, the same years as his Great Wave.
A charming farmyard picture for a cottage kitchen.
12. Spring Day (The Three Life Ages)
Arnold Böcklin, Spring Day (The Three Life Ages), 1883.
Böcklin painted Spring Day in 1883: children, lovers and an old man share a flowering meadow, the three ages of life in one spring afternoon.
Soft greens and cream for a peaceful bedroom.
For a cottagecore room, keep frames simple: painted wood, natural oak or a thin gold moulding. Hang small pictures in clusters near windows, shelves and dressers, the way they would gather in a real cottage over the years. Soft greens, creams, faded pinks and terracotta tie them together. For more, see farmhouse wall art and gallery wall ideas.
Questions
What is cottagecore decor?
A romantic country style inspired by cottages and gardens: flowers, natural wood, linen, vintage china and gentle pictures of country life.
What art suits a cottagecore home?
Gentle, sunlit pictures of gardens, flowers, cottages, meadows and farm animals, especially watercolours and impressionist paintings.
What colours are cottagecore?
Sage and moss green, cream, butter yellow, faded pink, sky blue and terracotta.
How do I hang art in a cottagecore style?
Hang small pictures in loose clusters near windows and shelves, in simple painted or wooden frames, rather than one big statement piece.