Artist Peter Schlesinger has transformed a nineteenth-century country house on Long Island into a serene retreat that captures a bygone era. The property, encompassing two acres of garden, includes rosebushes, magnolia trees, and an orchard bearing apples, peaches, and quinces. On a quiet September afternoon, the estate exudes the calm, almost deserted atmosphere of a beach town transitioning out of its busy season.

Inside the house, which features a central foyer with stairs leading to the bedrooms, elements of Schlesinger’s personal history and aesthetic merge. Pale gray walls display mounted antlers, while handmade ceramic vessels crafted by Schlesinger rest on the hardwood floor. The interiors blend furnishings from different backgrounds: antique pieces such as a Japanese tansu chest inherited from his aunt Helen, a U.S. Navy nurse stationed in Japan after World War II, alongside a hand-carved wooden chandelier and neo-Biedermeier armchairs passed down from his partner Eric Boman’s Swedish paternal grandparents.

Contrasting with the couple’s midcentury-modern city apartment, the Long Island home showcases ornate 1840s wallpaper, damask curtains, and antiques often found in yard sales and secondhand shops. Schlesinger notes a humorous division of their stylistic preferences, joking that if they ever divorced, Boman would retain the nineteenth-century pieces while Schlesinger would keep the twentieth-century ones. Over time, the wallpaper has begun to peel and curtains have faded from sunlight exposure. The attic, meanwhile, stores a significant collection of Schlesinger’s pottery.

Schlesinger’s life is frequently recounted in two phases: his early years traveling Europe with the late British painter David Hockney, and the decades spent with Boman. In 1968, at age 20 and a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Schlesinger moved to London with Hockney, who was both his mentor and partner, enrolling at the Slade School of Fine Art. Raised in a culturally engaged family in Los Angeles, Schlesinger found London’s artistic environment to be a distinct and formative experience. He recalls encounters with figures such as photographer Cecil Beaton, writer Christopher Isherwood, and socialite Bianca Jagger.

In 1971, during a dinner where he was introduced to Boman—a then-fashion illustrator—Schlesinger’s relationship with Hockney came to a fraught and ultimately decisive end. The couple relocated to New York in 1978, where Schlesinger’s own career evolved. His time abroad has been documented through his photographic works, including “Checkered Past: A Visual Diary of the ’60s and ’70s” (2003) and “A Photographic Memory 1968-1989” (2015). His role as Hockney’s muse has been immortalized in the 1973 film “A Bigger Splash” and in a number of Hockney’s paintings, most notably the iconic 1972 “Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures).” British actor Simon Callow famously referred to Schlesinger as the “gay Mona Lisa,” a testament to his enduring presence in art history. However, Schlesinger has reflected on whether his reputation primarily as a muse may have limited perceptions of his own artistic contributions.