The Collector: Blanchette Rockefeller
The Collector08.14.2025
Tucked away on a quiet block in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay neighborhood is Philip Johnson’s Rockefeller Guest House, commissioned in 1948 by Blanchette Rockefeller.
Blanchette and her husband, oil scion John D. Rockefeller III, bonded over a passion for art. He preferred Asian works while she was drawn to modernist pieces. Attempts to display their self-described “mishmash” of a personal collection at their Beekman Place duplex had been unsuccessful. Blanchette’s first acquisition, a bronze horse and rider by the Italian sculptor Marino Marini, “looked out of place among the Chinese porcelains and sculptures, the Impressionist paintings, and the English furniture as if it had wandered out of its stall.”
So Blanchette commissioned Johnson to design and build a “guest house” where she could entertain guests and display her collection of modern art. The plot of land, at 242 East 52nd Street, was located conveniently between her apartment and the Museum of Modern Art, which was co-founded by her mother-in-law in 1929. A dedicated philanthropist in her own right, Blanchette founded the museum’s Junior Council in 1948 and would later serve two terms as president.
Johnson’s Guest House would be one of the earliest buildings in New York City to reflect modernist design and the influence of German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Uninterrupted brick walls painted white extended from the living area through the courtyard, providing a neutral backdrop for Blanchette’s art collection which by then included works by Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp, Robert Motherwell, and more. Vertical windows looked into an interior courtyard with a meditative pond that extends the full width of the building.
The Rockefeller Guest House functioned as an extension of MoMA and hosted many glittery functions intended to introduce trustees to new acquisitions. In 1955, John III was irritated by the amount of time his wife spent at the Guest House and convinced her to donate it to MoMA. Since then, it has changed owners a number of times. In 2023, cosmetics heir and billionaire philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder sold the gem of a building for $19.999 million in an off-market deal.
Photos via Gottscho-Schleisner (Library of Congress)
Image: Alberto Giacometti’s “Man Pointing” stands in the living room and above the fireplace is Jacques Lipchitz’s “Birth of the Muses.”
