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Home is where the art is.
The Manhattan townhouse that art-world luminaries Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner used as their studio space in the early 1950s has listed for sale, asking $7.99 million, according to a release from its listing brokerage.
And perhaps it’s no surprise the couple chose the property — at 9 MacDougal Alley along one of the city’s most prime gated mews — as a workspace.
Not only do listing images show charming old-world interiors, with perks including beamed ceilings and hardwood floors, but they also showcase a massive wall of windows that lets natural light pour in. That prime fixture, referred to in the marketing materials as an artist’s skylight, is framed under a double-height ceiling — and it dates to when Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum, had her studio nearby.
While the couple’s use of the roughly 1,500-square-foot building may seem many decades in the past, it actually isn’t as distant as it may seem. Should this residence now sell, it would mark the first time since December 1988 that it changed hands.
Pollock and Krasner resided at No. 9 in 1949 and 1950, according to Brick Underground, having borrowed the dwelling from Pollock’s friend and benefactor, the painter Alfonso Ossorio.
Located just north of Washington Square Park, MacDougal Alley stands behind gates — with the thoroughfare dating to 1833. Traditionally, the buildings along the mews were the carriage houses of the mansions that stood on Washington Square North.
Similar to Sylvan Terrace in Washington Heights, these are the tiny districts that stand apart from the traditional city street grid — home to houses that many locals don’t even know exist.
The 25-foot-wide spread is marketed as a single-family home or a live-work space. Perks also include a woodburning fireplace, a garden with mature plantings, a lovely weathered brick facade and a mezzanine level. There are also two bedrooms — one, in the listing images, has painted brick walls and built-in bookcases.
There are also two kitchens, a second-floor balcony and a roof that can be decked and landscaped.
Mae Bagai and Jonathan Hettinger with Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.