The guided tour of the Louise Bourgeois house

Why it is on the list

Louise Bourgeois lived and worked in this 1856 townhouse in the Chelsea Historic District for almost 50 years; she and Robert Goldwater bought it in 1962.¹ After 1973 she moved her studio up from the basement to the parlour floor and made the whole house her workplace: many of her sculptures, drawings, gouaches and prints were made here, and her Sunday Salons met in the parlour.¹ She left it to the Easton Foundation, which is conserving the home and studio and has added an archive, a small exhibition room and a sculpture garden behind the house.¹ She was the subject of the Museum of Modern Art's first retrospective of a woman artist, in 1982, and represented the United States at the 1993 Venice Biennale; the French Legion of Honour was presented to her in this house in 2008.²

It is the wrong choice for a visit at short notice, at a weekend or in summer: tours run only on weekdays outside major holidays, the house closes in July and August, and the calendar is booked until spring 2027.³ For an artist's house that can be booked on a set date, take the guided visit to 101 Spring Street.

How to get it

Write to the foundation at info@theeastonfoundation.org and ask for a guided group tour of the home, studio, archive and sculpture garden.⁴³ Tours are by appointment only, never at weekends or on major holidays, and not in July or August.³ The calendar is booked until spring 2027, so write well ahead.³ Visit requests go to the foundation itself, never to its licensing agent.⁴

Discretion

The house is seen only on a guided tour arranged in advance; the foundation takes no walk-in visitors.³ Tours run on weekdays only.³