A beloved homeless artist famed for painting the birds of Central Park was the woman found viciously murdered in a gazebo near the park’s boathouse, The Post has learned.
Lee Rogers, 63, who buoyantly peddled intricate wildlife watercolors during her years of sleeping rough in the wooded Manhattan haven, died after being bludgeoned by a stick-wielding madman Sunday, law-enforcement sources said.
“She was like the Grandma Moses of Central Park,” said Robert DeCandido, a nature walk guide, referring to the 1950s American folk painter.
“When she did the bird feeders, the birders loved her. They would buy her artwork in the park,” DeCandido, who goes by “Birding Bob,” told The Post on Monday.
The discovery of a body in the gazebo near 74th Street and East Drive quickly prompted rumors among Central Park birdwatchers – and homeless people who frequent the green space – that it was Rogers.
The suspect – Jonathan Robles, 36 – turned himself in to authorities late Sunday, police said.
Sources said Rogers and Robles got into some type of argument that escalated into violence, although the details were unclear.
Rogers referred to herself as Francis Lee Rogers on her website and Facebook. Sources said she was also known as Elise Bainbridge Hill – a name that sheds some light on her murky past.
Elise Bainbridge Hill, or Rogers, was the subject of a 2007 documentary “Begging Naked” that detailed how she ran away to New York City as a teen.
The youthful Rogers fell into prostitution and drug addiction, eventually working as a stripper while she honed her skills in art, according to the documentary.
Rogers often cultivated an air of mystery as she became a fixture in the park, trodding out with a sketchbook and a twisted walking stick.
When the New York Times profiled Rogers – and compared her to naturalist artist John James Audubon – in 2012, Rogers politely declined to give her age or details about her life.
Birders and parkgoers knew Rogers through her paintings, which she sold as she camped out at churches near the park.
“For many years I was homeless,” she wrote on her website. “I worked on my paintings at the Central Park boathouse.”
Robles was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan court on murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges Monday.
— Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer
