Cone sisters
Cone sisters | |
---|---|
Resting place | Druid Ridge Cemetery[1] |
Nationality | American |
Education | Western Female High School Women's Medical College (Claribel) |
Occupation(s) | Art collectors Physician/researcher (Claribel) |
Parent(s) | Herman (Kahn) Cone Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone |
Claribel Cone (1864–1929) and Etta Cone (1870–1949), collectively known as the Cone sisters, were active as American art collectors, world travelers, and socialites during the first part of the 20th century. Claribel trained as a physician and Etta as a pianist. Their social circle included Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein. They gathered one of the best known private collections of modern art in the United States at their Baltimore apartments, and the collection now makes up a wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Their collection was estimated to be worth almost a billion US dollars in 2002.
Early life
The Cones' parents were Herman (Kahn) Cone and Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone, who were
The family then moved to
The Cone sisters graduated from the
Art collecting and connections
The Cone sisters were friends of literary figures such as Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Their social circle included French artist Henri Matisse and Spanish painter Pablo Picasso.[9] Etta began purchasing art in 1898, when she was given $300 by a brother to decorate the family home.[3] Her purchase of five impressionistic paintings by Theodore Robinson began a lifetime of collecting. Her tastes at first tended toward the conservative,[10] but one day in 1903, while the Cone sisters were on a European holiday, they visited Stein and her brother in Paris.[11] Etta was introduced to Picasso, followed by Matisse the next year, marking the beginning of her lifelong love of his art.[12][13][14] The relationship the Cone sisters developed with Matisse was so close he referred to them as "my two Baltimore ladies."[15] Matisse once did a sketch of Etta.[16]
Etta made purchases to help upcoming artists like Matisse, Picasso, and students of the Maryland Institute College (MICA). She also bought at very low prices from the Steins, who were perpetually in need of money and were known to purchase discarded sketches from Picasso at his art studio for two or three dollars apiece.[10] Claribel acquired much more experimental grade works. She purchased Matisse's Blue Nude for 120,760 francs and Paul Cézanne's mountain painting Mont Sainte Victoire as Seen From Bibemus Quarry for 410,000 francs. Etta, being more financially conservative, was more likely to spend 10,000 francs for a collection of drawings or paintings.[17] The Cone sisters had a special interest in Matisse's Nice period.[18] After Claribel's death, Etta became more adventurous in her purchases, for instance, purchasing Matisse's Large Reclining Nude (The Pink Nude) for 9,000 francs in 1936, or about $2,000 US at the time (equivalent to $36,849 in 2019).[19]
Gertrude Stein and her older brother Leo Stein had been orphaned in 1892 and relocated to Baltimore to reside with their mother's sister.[20] This had led to their becoming part of the Cone sisters' social crowd. During Claribel's time at the Women's Medical College of Johns Hopkins University, Gertrude was also studying there. There were many differences between Claribel and Gertrude. These individualistic women were attracted to each other, however, by their common interest in music, fine arts, and sociable conversations. Etta credited Leo Stein with helping her develop an appreciation of modern art.[21] Etta was more reserved. She admired Gertrude's Bohemian lifestyle, and biographer Brenda Richardson concludes that there is a strong possibility Etta and Gertrude were at one point lovers.[22]
The sisters' particular social contacts produced an advantage from which they could compile a world-renowned art collection.[18] The Cone sisters built up a large collection of paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.[10]
Gertrude Stein later tried to undermine the Cone sisters as mere shoppers guided by their taste. In fact, the sisters had an excellent feel for fine art, influenced by the large collection of books on art which they purchased and used.[23] The two sisters lived in apartments next to each other at the Marlborough Apartment building on Eutaw Street in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore for fifty years. Their art was hung on the walls of their individual apartments. The sisters' nephew later recollected that their display of pictures covered most of the wall space, even the bathroom walls.[10]
The Cone sisters also had an impressive collection of
Museum legacies
While the sisters' collection remained private until Etta's death, Etta occasionally lent pieces to museums for exhibition. Claribel had willed her artistic paintings to Etta, spelling out in her will that these paintings should be transferred to the
The Cone Collection includes Matisse's Blue Nude (1907) and Reclining Nude (1935), Cézanne's Mont Sainte Victoire as seen from Bibémus Quarry (1897), Gauguin's
The Cone sisters also acquired many of Picasso's works, and among these were 114 prints and drawings from his early years in
A portion of the Cone art collection, including many Matisse
Death
Claribel died September 20, 1929.[30] Etta died on August 31, 1949.[31] The Cone sisters were buried at Baltimore's Druid Ridge Cemetery in an area called Hickory Knoll. The only word on their ten-by-ten family mausoleum is "Cone". Architect James O. Olney designed the Tennessee marble mausoleum, which is flanked by two Roman-style columns of Vermont granite and has two age-darkened bronze doors in front.[28]
Footnotes
- ^ The Cone Sisters of Baltimore: Collecting at Full Tilt, by Ellen B. Hirschland, Nancy Hirschland Ramage, Northwestern University Press, Jul 3, 2008
- ^ Lucius Wedge. "Moses Herman Cone". Retrieved April 15, 2021.
In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt. German Historical Institute. Last modified February 24, 2015.
- ^ a b c d "The Claribel and Etta Cone Collection". Weatherspoon Art Museum. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ a b Richardson 1985, p. 47.
- ^ "Cone Hall". Appalachian State University. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Cone, Edward (October 11, 1999). "Shirtsleeves to Matisses". Forbes. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
- ^ Hirschland 2008, p. 71.
- ^ Malino, Sarah S. (1999). "Claribel Cone". The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
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- ^ a b c d Carter, Ashley. "Inside the Cone Collection: Baltimore Sisters Amassed A Treasure Trove Of Art". Frugal Fun. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
- ^ Pollack 1962, pp. 59–69.
- ^ "Cone Collection". Baltimore Museum of Art. 2007. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014.
- ^ "The Etta Cone Letters, 1927–1949". University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
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- ^ a b "Cone Sisters". Maryland State Archives. June 24, 2004. Archived from the original on September 16, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ a b "Matisse in the Cone Collection: The Poetics of Vision". The Pennsylvania State University Press. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018.
- ^ Hirschland 2008, pp. 152–154.
- ^ Shivers 1998, p. 269.
- ^ Fillion 2011, p. 23.
- ^ a b c d e Cotter, Holland (October 30, 1994). "ART; The Cone Sisters: Shoppers or Connoisseurs?". The New York Times.
- ^ Aichele 2016, p. 146.
- ^ McNatt, Glenn (March 31, 2002). "Cone sisters' collection of lace gets a rare exhibit". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
- ^ Martin, Georges (1908). "Black Chantilly Bobbin Lace Fan Leaf". Baltimore Museum of Art. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
- ^ "Point de France Needle Lace Furnishing Flounce". Baltimore Museum of Art. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
- ^ a b Richardson 1985, p. 9.
- ^ a b Gabriel 2002, p. 218.
- ^ "Turner: Reflections of Sea and Light - Venues". The National Archives. Archived from the original on August 2, 2011. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
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Sources
- Aichele, K. Porter (2016). Modern Art on Display. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 9781611496178.
- Fillion, Susan (2011). Miss Etta and Dr. Claribel. Boston, Massachusetts: David R. Godine. ISBN 9781567924343.
- Gabriel, Mary (2002). Art of Acquiring: The Portrait of Etta & Claribel Cone. Baltimore, Maryland: Bancroft Press. ISBN 9781890862732.
- Hirschland, Ellan B. (2008). The Cone Sisters of Baltimore. Chicago, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810124813.
- Pollack, Barbara (1962). Collectors: Dr. Claribel & Miss Etta Cone. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill Company. OCLC 186870265.
- Richardson, Brenda (1985). Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta. Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Museum of Art. ISBN 0912298588.
- Shivers, Frank R. (1998). Maryland Wits and Baltimore Bards. Baltimore, Maryland: ISBN 9780801858109.
External links
- Claribel and Etta Cone's documents at Baltimore Museum of Art.
- Collecting Matisse and the modern masters works: Cone Sisters of Baltimore Exhibition (2011) at Jewish Museum (New York City)
- Claribel Cone's memorial at Find-a-Grave
- Etta Cone's memorial at Find-a-Grave
- "Etta Cone", Jewish Women Archive, Harriet Feinberg