The Cone Sisters of Baltimore: Collecting at Full TiltOver a period of fifty years, sisters Claribel and Etta Cone amassed one of the most acclaimed collections of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century art in America. Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta were two halves of an idiosyncratic team—Claribel bold and assertive and Etta reflective and sensitive—who used the fortunes of their German Jewish immigrant family to seek out works that inspired and pleased them, regardless of public opinion and with only self-taught expertise. This richly illustrated biography documents their lives from a unique perspective: that of their great-niece, who wrote this book with her daughter. Ellen B. Hirschland and Nancy Hirschland Ramage delve into Claribel’s and Etta’s world, following the sisters through letters and personal stories as they travel to meet some of the artists whose works would turn their adjoining apartments into a gallery. They bought art by Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne, as well as of Picasso and Matisse, whom they came to know well. The sisters’ experiences in Paris from 1901 through the 1920s provide an exceptional view of the bright artistic ferment in the city at that time. They were two Victorian women from Baltimore buying avant-garde masterpieces, attending salons with friends Gertrude and Leo Stein, and building a collection that would initially enrage the conservative people around them. Only with time would their keen eyes and unwavering taste prove them right. |
Contents
Impoverished Peddler to Prosperous Merchant | 15 |
Etta opens the Door | 33 |
3 | 38 |
6 | 44 |
Chapter 4 | 53 |
The Decided Doctor Claribel | 67 |
2 | 70 |
3 | 85 |
circa 1897 | 118 |
A Tribute to Claribel | 133 |
Ettas Acquisitions of the 1930s and 1940s | 147 |
Etta and Ellen | 181 |
1 | 183 |
4 | 189 |
7 | 195 |
Legacy | 199 |
Common terms and phrases
Allan Stein American Art Archives artist asked Aunt Etta Baltimore Museum Beinecke Rare Books Blowing Rock Blue Nude Books and Manuscripts bronze brother Ceasar Cézanne Claribel and Etta Claribel and Miss Claribel Cone Claribel wrote color Cone Collection Cone from Munich Cone in Baltimore Cone sisters Cone’s Courtesy of BMA drawings Ellen Hirschland Etta and Claribel Etta bought Etta Cone Etta’s Félix Vallotton FIGURE Fred Cone Gallery Gauguin Germany Gertrude Stein Gertrude's Greensboro Henri Matisse Hirschland Archives Jonesborough knew later Laura Cone Leo Stein living Marlborough Apartments Matisse's Medical Michael Stein Miss Etta Cone Modern Art Moses Munich to Etta Museum of Art Museum of Modern Oil on canvas Pablo Picasso painting Paul Vallotton Photograph picture portrait purchase Richardson Rosengart sculpture Siegfried Rosengart summer Toklas William Zorach Woman with Mango women wrote Etta Yale University Library yellow York