Elliott Erwitt had already achieved worldwide fame for his unforgettable photographs of the famous and the whimsical when he moved into his large apartment at 88 Central Park West in the late 1960s.
His home, on the eighth floor of the 12-story Brentmore condominium at the corner of West 69th Street, was worth about $75,000 at the time, according to one of his six children, Jennifer Erwitt. “It was a lot of effort to make this purchase,” he said. “He was successful, but I don’t think he was really rich.”
In the early 1980s, as his wealth grew, along with his vast collection of copyrighted images, he also set up a photography studio on the ground floor of the building, which was converted from a dental office. He kept countless photographs and books (he wrote a few dozen himself) in the studio and arranged photo shoots there as well as private sales of his works.
With Mr Erwitt’s death last November aged 95, both properties are now being sold by his estate. The asking price for the residence is $11.5 million, with $11,428 in monthly maintenance, and the studio is $2.3 million and $8,380 in maintenance, according to listing agent Ann Cutbill Lenane of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
“It’s in a state of ownership,” Ms. Lenane said, noting that little had been done to each unit in recent decades. (The residence has received a few coats of paint over the years, and new window seats were installed early on in the living room.) “But you can make it a great space,” he added.
The Brentmore was built in the Upper West Side’s Lincoln Square neighborhood in 1910 and converted to a co-op in 1959. It has hosted many famous residents, including Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, with whom Mr. Erwitt also frequented photographer Annie Leibovitz, who recently sold her duplex there.
Mr. Erwitt’s residence, overlooking Central Park and measuring approximately 3,350 square feet, is laid out with three master bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and two staff rooms, along with a laundry room, a formal dining room and a very large living room. The studio comprises approximately 2,630 square feet, with four large rooms used as offices, meeting spaces or for photo shoots, as well as a full bathroom and shooting room. Stairs from the studio lead to the lower level of the building, where Mr. Erwitt maintained a 356-square-foot darkroom and storage area.
“He used to love moving from the eighth floor to the lobby,” said Ms. Erwitt, who fondly remembers her time in the apartment as a child and young adult. “My parents were divorced so I was going back and forth. I spent weekends there and in East Hampton, where he also had a house and a studio.” (The house in the Hamptons is on the market $3.75 million.)
One of Ms. Erwitt’s favorite memories of the Manhattan apartment, she said, was watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades with family and friends from the living room. In 1988, Mr. Erwitt, with his characteristic sense of humor, famously captured a giant Snoopy he was walking past a window with two of his daughters sitting nearby.
Many pre-war architectural features remain in both the residence and the studio, including the hardwood floors and moldings and the 11-foot coffered and beamed ceilings. The kitchen in the central apartment still retains the original glass and wood cupboard.
Mr. Erwitt’s home and studio are filled with an eclectic mix of furniture, artwork and memorabilia from extensive travels for his commercial and artistic commissions. He collected everything from quirky Asian masks to life-size mannequins (his favorite subjects to shoot). “He would never decorate,” Ms. Erwitt said, “he would just take things and find a place to put them.”
Many of his photographs hang on the walls of both units. Over the years, French-born Mr. Erwitt, a member of the independent photography collective Magnum, has shot a wide range of celebrities for various magazines. Among them, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Che Guevara. One of his most recognizable images was in 1959.talk about the kitchen” between President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Mr. Erwitt was known for his shots of subjects from all walks of life. The 1953 image titled “Mother and child”, on display at the Museum of Modern Art, showed a woman on a bed looking lovingly into the eyes of her baby. (The woman was Mr Erwitt’s first wife, Lucienne Matthews, and the infant was their daughter Ellen.)
Dogs were also a favorite subject, including his own, Sammy, a Cairn terrier.
“I’ve always thought of his photos as cartoons of the New Yorker — he was having fun with humanity in general,” said Jennifer Erwitt’s husband, photographer Rick Smolan. The couple, creators of the ‘Day in the Life’ picture book series, are now forming a foundation to ensure that Mr Erwitt’s work continues to be available in New York and in galleries around the world.