Jasper Johns' secluded, rustic Stony Point home is for sale for $600K
The secluded Stony Point home and studio where one of America’s greatest living artists found inspiration is on the market.
Jasper Johns’ converted 1930s barn, tucked into a hillside and hidden from view along West Main Street, is listed with Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty for $600,000.
Johns, who bought the rustic home in 1973 for $48,000, expanded the space and installed four floor-to-ceiling garage-door style rollup windows that allow sunlight to pour into the second-floor studio and living room below.
“I do most of my work here,” the reclusive artist told The Journal News in 1976. “That’s why I had to add this space. Since I made the addition and have been here full time, I’m beginning to enjoy it.”
Johns has produced some of this country’s most iconic artworks, including his depictions of the American flag; his work sells for millions and hangs in many prominent museums, including New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art.
Johns, now 93, moved out in 1987 and sold the home in 1995.
The original portion of the two-floor, two-bedroom 2,100-square-foot dwelling features its original barn board walls, exposed hand hewn wooden beams, and hardwood flooring. A wooden deck runs along the south-facing rear of the house.
An upstairs bathroom contains an old-fashioned bathtub whose faucets were depicted in a number of Johns’ artworks, including Racing Thoughts, a 1983 painting owned by the Whitney.
Many of the home’s windows look out onto the pastoral 1.3-acre parcel’s thickly wooded land, rock walls and the Cedar Pond Brook. A converted studio apartment adjoins the standalone two-car garage. The property’s annual tax bill is $11,635, according to Sotheby’s.
Stephanie Gutman, who bought the home in 2013 for $380,000, has touted the property on Instagram as a film and photo location as well as a performance and event space.
Johns’ design made the house especially attractive to visual artists, Gutman said during an interview in November 2022.
“He created light all over the place that he could paint by, and in doing so he created fantastic light for photography,” she said. “People are very inspired by the light they get pretty much everywhere, particularly in the studio room because you have light streaming in from above and from virtually all sides.”
Co-listing agent Jacob P. Matthews called the home’s availability “a rare opportunity to own a piece of history.”
“There are a lot of appreciators of Johns’ work and it's possible that he created some of his most famous works in the studio in this home,” Matthews said.
Matthews added: “It’s a home of exceptional provenance, beautifully sited and well balanced with antique, rustic and contemporary architectural features. We feel it’s a work of art, in and of itself.”
Robert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Artist Jasper Johns' Stony Point NY home and studio for sale
