The Life of Alice Austen Larkey | The New Yorker

Austin’s path, like that of many New York artists, eventually rested on the vicissitudes of real estate. At Clear Comfort, she built a remarkable existence of self-determination—for thirty years, she lived there alongside Tate, whom she had fallen in love with while on vacation in the Catskills. (A series of bizarre photographs show Tate dancing outside in the sun.) But the Austen family’s money was lost in the crash of 1929, and she and Tate, struggling to support themselves, were forced to sell many of their possessions—including a collection of shells, which adds a bittersweet twist to the show’s current title. In 1944 they sold the house. Tate eventually moved in with her family, who rejected Austen; Austen moved to the Staten Island Farm Colony, a hospital for the poor.

Alice Austen (left) and Gertrude Tate, at Picard’s Penny Photography Studio, in Stapleton, Staten Island.

former life Austen’s work was rediscovered by a magazine writer in 1951, and a new wave of interest and support restored it to some degree of ease, before her death in 1952. Clare Comfort was preserved thanks to the efforts of Austen’s new admirers (including the photographer Berenice Abbott). It functioned for a time as a more or less traditional museum of a historic house: the boarded-up rooms contained an almost assortment of period furniture, with little that was specific to Austen’s life there. The house’s official accounts canceled its relationship with Tate, inspiring activist group The Lesbian Avengers to stage a protest outside it in the 1990s. However, in 2017, it was named a National Historic Site for the LGBTQ community, and today the Tate stands out as an essential part of Austin’s story.