Upon his return, he lived in Washington D.C. where he worked as a night watchman at The Phillips Collection until 1963 when he relocated permanently to New York City to be a career visual artist.
To honor Nesbitt's contributions to the art world, in 1980, the United States Postal Service issued four stamps based on his floral paintings.
This studio and living space included an indoor swimming pool, a four-story atrium and a rooftop entertainment area; Nesbitt labelled the facility "The Old Stable."
She continued to use the structure until the early 2000s, when it was sold to the real estate developer Barry Diller, her husband, and demolished to make space for a new high-rise building.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., had agreed to host a solo exhibit of Mapplethorpe's works without stipulating what type of subject matter would be used.
However, in public statements, Nesbitt promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition of the controversial images created by Mapplethorpe he would revoke his bequest.
The Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the $1.5 million to the Phillips Collection, which he cited as an early inspiration to his career when he had worked there as a young man in the position of a night watchman.