Rauschenberg’s Captiva Studio Was Built by Ding Darling

The Fish House on Captiva was built in 1942 by Jay “Ding” Darling, the cartoonist and conservationist whose name is on the wildlife refuge on neighboring Sanibel. In 1978 Robert Rauschenberg bought it and made it his private studio.

The Captiva Years

Rauschenberg, born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1925, was already famous for his Combines, paintings with tires, road signs and stuffed birds worked into them, when he bought property on Captiva in 1968. He made the island his home in 1970 and worked there until he died on Captiva on May 12, 2008.

The Residency

From 2012 his foundation ran an artist residency on the 22-acre compound, bringing about 100 artists a year, more than 500 in all. In 2025 the foundation announced the sale of the property to a venture tied to the South Seas resort, and the last residency sessions ended in August 2026.