Claribel Cone
Encyclopedia
The Cone sisters were Claribel Cone (1864–1929) and Etta Cone (1870–1949) of Baltimore, Maryland. Together they gathered one of the finest collections of modern French art in the United States. They were wealthy socialite
s during the Gilded Age
.
-Jewish immigrants. Herman, who had immigrated from Altenstadt in Bavaria (South of Ulm) changed the spelling of his last name from Kahn to "Cone" almost immediately upon arrival in the United States in 1845, perhaps to become more American
. Until 1871 the family lived in Jonesboro, Tennessee, where they had a successful grocery business. This is where the first five of twelve children were born, including Claribel and Etta. They then moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
The eldest Cone brothers, Moses and Ceasar [the non-classical spelling is correct], later relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina
. They established a textile business they named Proximity Manufacturing Company (long known as Cone Mills Corporation
, now a unit of International Textile Group
). During World War I
the textile mills that "Brother Moses
" started would again increase their fortunes.
The two sisters, one with a grander personage and independent, the other garrulous and sociable, lived in adjoining apartments on Eutaw Street
in Baltimore for fifty years. They both graduated from Western Female High School. Claribel attended Women's Medical College of Baltimore and graduated in 1890, to become a physician and pathologist. She then worked in the pathology
laboratory of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Claribel became a pathologist but never practiced medicine
. However, she did teach pathology and continued to study with other Europe
an researchers over the next twenty years. Etta was a pianist and managed the family household as more an implementer of Dr. Claribel's ideas. They traveled extensively to Europe together almost yearly on long trips starting in 1901.
and Alice B. Toklas
. Their social circle included Henri Matisse
and Pablo Picasso
.
It was Etta who began purchasing art in 1898, when she was given $300 to decorate the family home by an older brother. Her start with five paintings by Theodore Robinson
became a lifetime of collecting. Her tastes at first tended toward the conservative, but one day in 1905, while the Cone sisters were on a European holiday, they visited the Steins in Paris
. Etta was introduced to Picasso and then to Matisse the next year, marking her lifelong love of his art. Etta made small acquisitions to help up-and-coming artists like Matisse, Picasso, and at home, students of the Maryland Institute College of Art
. She also bought at very low prices from the Steins, who were perpetually in need of money and were known to get discarded drawings in Picasso's studio for $2 or $3 apiece.
Claribel, by contrast, purchased much more avant-garde
works. She purchased Matisse's Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
(120,760 francs
) and Paul Cézanne
's Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen From the Bibemus Quarry
(410,000 francs) for their collection. Etta was much more conservative and commonly spent an average of 10,000 francs for a painting or a group of drawings. The Cone sisters had a special interest in Matisse's Nice
period. However, after Claribel's death, Etta became more adventurous in her purchases, for instance, purchasing Matisse's "Large Reclining Nude" ("The Pink Nude") in 1935.
were orphaned and moved to Baltimore to live with an aunt. They soon became part of the Cone sister's social crowd. During Claribel's time at the Women's Medical College of Johns Hopkins University
, Gertrude was also studying there. There was a big age gap between Claribel and Gertrude. These unconventional women were drawn to each other, however, by their common interest in music, fine arts, and sociable conversations. Etta credited Leo for helping her develop an eye for modern art
. Etta was reserved and conservative. She was awe struck by Gertrude's Bohemian
lifestyle, and there are even hints that they were very likely lovers at some point. That relationship cooled, however, after Toklas came on the scene.
Stein wrote about Etta and Claribel in Two Women:
, Paul Gauguin
, and Paul Cézanne
. The Cone sisters never married; this was the case for about ten percent of women during this time period. Customary to their rank in society, they traveled extensively in the company of other women. Claribel's pursuit of a medical degree was considered unlady-like in her social sphere. The Cone sisters' use of the family’s prosperity to collect fine artwork was unparalleled among other women. They were known as eccentrics and had a comical presence clad in their long Victorian dresses. When they went to the opera in Paris, they would buy an extra seat to hold their day's purchases.
Although Gertrude Stein tried to belittle the Cone sisters as mere "shoppers" guided by her taste, in fact the sisters had strong tastes guided by the enormous collection of books on art which they purchased and studied. Their purchases were displayed on the walls of their Marlborough apartments in Baltimore. The sisters' nephew once commented on this display, The pictures covered every available inch of wall space, even in the bathrooms. While the collection remained private until Etta's death, Etta occasionally lent pieces to museums to exhibit. Claribel had willed her paintings to Etta, stipulating that these pieces should eventually be given to the Baltimore Museum of Art
if the spirit of appreciation of modern art in Baltimore should improve. To that museum the bulk of the collection eventually went.
's Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897), Paul Gauguin
's Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), and Pablo Picasso
's Mother and Child (1922). The Cone sisters collected throughout Matisse's career, accumulating 42 of his oil paintings, 18 sculptures, 36 drawings, 155 prints, and seven illustrated books, as well as 250 drawings, prints, and copper
plates from Matisse's first illustrated book, Poésies de Stéphane Mallarmé. Other Matisse works they acquired were the 1917 Woman in a Turban (Lorette), Seated Odalisque, Left Knee Bent, Ornamental Background and Checkerboard (1928), and Interior, Flowers and Parakeets (1924). The 500 works by Matisse in the Cone Collection form the largest and most representative group of his works of art in the world.
The Cone sisters also purchased and acquired many of Picasso's works. Among these were 114 of his prints and drawings from his early years in Barcelona
and from his Rose period (1905 — 1906) in Paris. The Cone sisters also purchased fine arts by American artists, more than 1,000 prints, illustrated books, and drawings. Among these were also a large group of textile
s; jewelry, furniture
, and other decorative arts. They not only purchased the finest European and Asian artwork, but also Egyptian
sculpture, Middle East
ern textiles, Indian
metalwork, 18th-century French
jewelry, Japanese
prints, and African
sculpture. Upon Etta's death in 1949, the Cone Collection was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone Wing contains over 3000 works. The estimated value today of the Cone Collection is $1 billion.
, where the Cone Mills were located. These mills play a large part in the local history and in the Cone sisters' wealth. Moses H. Cone
started these mills and had his vacation home Flat Top Manor
in nearby Blowing Rock, North Carolina
. The Cone sisters often visited their famous brother there.
Other visitors were Julius Cone and his wife Laura Weil, Etta's sister-in-law. Laura Cone was a loyal alumna of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Etta knew that the Weatherspoon Art Gallery had been established on campus in 1942 and that the organization was struggling to get established. Laura Cone asked her sister-in-law, Etta, if she would consider making a donation of art. In her will dated May 18, 1949, Etta left an astonishing collection to the Weatherspoon Art Gallery of sixty-seven Matisse prints and six Matisse bronzes as well as a large number of modern prints and drawings, including works by Pablo Picasso
, Félix Vallotton
, Raoul Dufy
, and John D. Graham
.
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 flanked by two Roman style columns of Vermont granite that has two age-darkened bronze doors in front. On each vault is their name with their birth and death dates.
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
s during the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
.
Early life
Their parents were Herman (Kahn) Cone and Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone, who were GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Jewish immigrants. Herman, who had immigrated from Altenstadt in Bavaria (South of Ulm) changed the spelling of his last name from Kahn to "Cone" almost immediately upon arrival in the United States in 1845, perhaps to become more American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Until 1871 the family lived in Jonesboro, Tennessee, where they had a successful grocery business. This is where the first five of twelve children were born, including Claribel and Etta. They then moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
The eldest Cone brothers, Moses and Ceasar [the non-classical spelling is correct], later relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. They established a textile business they named Proximity Manufacturing Company (long known as Cone Mills Corporation
Cone Mills Corporation
Cone Mills Corporation was a world leader in textile manufacturing of corduroy, flannel, denim and other cotton fabrics for most of the 20th century. The company was based in Greensboro, North Carolina and its mills were mostly in North and South Carolina...
, now a unit of International Textile Group
International Textile Group
International Textile Group is a diversified U.S. fabric maker based in Greensboro, North Carolina. It acquired the assets of the former Burlington Industries out of bankruptcy in late 2003, and the assets of the former Cone Mills Corporation in 2004...
). During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the textile mills that "Brother Moses
Moses H. Cone
Moses Herman Cone was an American textile entrepreneur, conservationist, and philanthropist of the Gilded Age who was active in the southern United States...
" started would again increase their fortunes.
The two sisters, one with a grander personage and independent, the other garrulous and sociable, lived in adjoining apartments on Eutaw Street
Eutaw Street
Eutaw Street is a major street in Baltimore, Maryland, mostly within the downtown area. Outside of downtown, it is mostly known as Eutaw Place....
in Baltimore for fifty years. They both graduated from Western Female High School. Claribel attended Women's Medical College of Baltimore and graduated in 1890, to become a physician and pathologist. She then worked in the pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
laboratory of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Claribel became a pathologist but never practiced medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. However, she did teach pathology and continued to study with other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an researchers over the next twenty years. Etta was a pianist and managed the family household as more an implementer of Dr. Claribel's ideas. They traveled extensively to Europe together almost yearly on long trips starting in 1901.
Career of the sisters
The Cone sisters were friends of literary illuminati like Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
and Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.-Early life, relationship with Gertrude Stein:...
. Their social circle included Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
.
It was Etta who began purchasing art in 1898, when she was given $300 to decorate the family home by an older brother. Her start with five paintings by Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes. He was one of the first American artists to take up impressionism in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny and developing a close friendship with Claude Monet...
became a lifetime of collecting. Her tastes at first tended toward the conservative, but one day in 1905, while the Cone sisters were on a European holiday, they visited the Steins in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Etta was introduced to Picasso and then to Matisse the next year, marking her lifelong love of his art. Etta made small acquisitions to help up-and-coming artists like Matisse, Picasso, and at home, students of the Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
. She also bought at very low prices from the Steins, who were perpetually in need of money and were known to get discarded drawings in Picasso's studio for $2 or $3 apiece.
Claribel, by contrast, purchased much more avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
works. She purchased Matisse's Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)
Blue Nude is an early 1907 oil painting by Henri Matisse. It is located at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of the Cone Collection....
(120,760 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
) and Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
's Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen From the Bibemus Quarry
Montagne Sainte-Victoire
Montagne Sainte-Victoire — in Provençal Occitan: Venturi / Santa Venturi according to classical orthography and Ventùri / Santo Ventùri according to Mistralian orthography — is a limestone mountain ridge in the south of France which extends over 18 kilometres between the départements of...
(410,000 francs) for their collection. Etta was much more conservative and commonly spent an average of 10,000 francs for a painting or a group of drawings. The Cone sisters had a special interest in Matisse's Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
period. However, after Claribel's death, Etta became more adventurous in her purchases, for instance, purchasing Matisse's "Large Reclining Nude" ("The Pink Nude") in 1935.
The Cones and the Steins
Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo SteinLeo Stein
Leo Stein was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the older brother of Gertrude Stein. He became an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings. Beginning in 1892, he studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for two years. The...
were orphaned and moved to Baltimore to live with an aunt. They soon became part of the Cone sister's social crowd. During Claribel's time at the Women's Medical College of Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Gertrude was also studying there. There was a big age gap between Claribel and Gertrude. These unconventional women were drawn to each other, however, by their common interest in music, fine arts, and sociable conversations. Etta credited Leo for helping her develop an eye for modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. Etta was reserved and conservative. She was awe struck by Gertrude's Bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
lifestyle, and there are even hints that they were very likely lovers at some point. That relationship cooled, however, after Toklas came on the scene.
Stein wrote about Etta and Claribel in Two Women:
Social status
Their particular social contacts produced an advantage from which they could compile a world renowned art collection. The Cone sisters compiled a large collection of paintings and sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van GoghVincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, and Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
. The Cone sisters never married; this was the case for about ten percent of women during this time period. Customary to their rank in society, they traveled extensively in the company of other women. Claribel's pursuit of a medical degree was considered unlady-like in her social sphere. The Cone sisters' use of the family’s prosperity to collect fine artwork was unparalleled among other women. They were known as eccentrics and had a comical presence clad in their long Victorian dresses. When they went to the opera in Paris, they would buy an extra seat to hold their day's purchases.
Although Gertrude Stein tried to belittle the Cone sisters as mere "shoppers" guided by her taste, in fact the sisters had strong tastes guided by the enormous collection of books on art which they purchased and studied. Their purchases were displayed on the walls of their Marlborough apartments in Baltimore. The sisters' nephew once commented on this display, The pictures covered every available inch of wall space, even in the bathrooms. While the collection remained private until Etta's death, Etta occasionally lent pieces to museums to exhibit. Claribel had willed her paintings to Etta, stipulating that these pieces should eventually be given to the Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
if the spirit of appreciation of modern art in Baltimore should improve. To that museum the bulk of the collection eventually went.
Cone Collection
The Cone Collection includes pieces from world famous artists: Matisse's Blue Nude (1907) and Large Reclining Nude (1935), Paul CézannePaul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
's Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897), Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
's Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
's Mother and Child (1922). The Cone sisters collected throughout Matisse's career, accumulating 42 of his oil paintings, 18 sculptures, 36 drawings, 155 prints, and seven illustrated books, as well as 250 drawings, prints, and copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
plates from Matisse's first illustrated book, Poésies de Stéphane Mallarmé. Other Matisse works they acquired were the 1917 Woman in a Turban (Lorette), Seated Odalisque, Left Knee Bent, Ornamental Background and Checkerboard (1928), and Interior, Flowers and Parakeets (1924). The 500 works by Matisse in the Cone Collection form the largest and most representative group of his works of art in the world.
The Cone sisters also purchased and acquired many of Picasso's works. Among these were 114 of his prints and drawings from his early years in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and from his Rose period (1905 — 1906) in Paris. The Cone sisters also purchased fine arts by American artists, more than 1,000 prints, illustrated books, and drawings. Among these were also a large group of textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s; jewelry, furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
, and other decorative arts. They not only purchased the finest European and Asian artwork, but also Egyptian
Egyptian Art
Egyptian Art may refer to:*The Art of ancient Egypt, c. 5000 BCE - c. 300 BCE*Hellenistic art of Egypt, c. 300 BCE - c. 100 CE, during the Ptolemaic dynasty*Coptic art c. 100 CE - present, see, e.g., Coptic iconography...
sculpture, Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern textiles, Indian
Indian art
Indian Art is the visual art produced on the Indian subcontinent from about the 3rd millennium BC to modern times. To viewers schooled in the Western tradition, Indian art may seem overly ornate and sensuous; appreciation of its refinement comes only gradually, as a rule. Voluptuous feeling is...
metalwork, 18th-century French
French art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...
jewelry, Japanese
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
prints, and African
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
sculpture. Upon Etta's death in 1949, the Cone Collection was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone Wing contains over 3000 works. The estimated value today of the Cone Collection is $1 billion.
Other collections
A portion of the Cone art collection, including many Matisse lithographs and bronzes, resides at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at GreensboroUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
, where the Cone Mills were located. These mills play a large part in the local history and in the Cone sisters' wealth. Moses H. Cone
Moses H. Cone
Moses Herman Cone was an American textile entrepreneur, conservationist, and philanthropist of the Gilded Age who was active in the southern United States...
started these mills and had his vacation home Flat Top Manor
Flat Top Manor
Flat Top Manor, as it is known to the locals, is also referred to as Moses Cone Manor, Moses Cone Estate, the Moses H. Cone Mansion, or just Flat Top. On the Blue Ridge Parkway it is located at Milepost 294 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina...
in nearby Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Blowing Rock is a town in North Carolina, USA, situated in both Caldwell and Watauga counties. The population was 1,418 at the 2000 census. However, during the summer the town's population increases to about 10,000.]]\\...
. The Cone sisters often visited their famous brother there.
Other visitors were Julius Cone and his wife Laura Weil, Etta's sister-in-law. Laura Cone was a loyal alumna of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Etta knew that the Weatherspoon Art Gallery had been established on campus in 1942 and that the organization was struggling to get established. Laura Cone asked her sister-in-law, Etta, if she would consider making a donation of art. In her will dated May 18, 1949, Etta left an astonishing collection to the Weatherspoon Art Gallery of sixty-seven Matisse prints and six Matisse bronzes as well as a large number of modern prints and drawings, including works by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Félix Vallotton
Félix Vallotton
Félix Edouard Vallotton was a Swiss painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut.-Life and work:...
, Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
, and John D. Graham
John D. Graham
John D. Graham was a Ukrainian-born American Modernist / figurative painter.He was born Ivan Gratianovitch Dombrowsky in Kiev, Ukraine...
.
Death
The Cone sisters are buried at Baltimore's Druid Ridge CemeteryDruid Ridge Cemetery
Druid Ridge Cemetery is located just outside the city of Baltimore in Pikesville, Maryland at 7900 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore Co., MD 21208. Among its monuments and graves are several noted sculptures by Hans Schuler and the final resting places of:...
in an area called Hickory Knoll. The only word on their ten by ten family mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
is "Cone." Architect James O. Olney designed the Tennessee marble mausoleum flanked by two Roman style columns of Vermont granite that has two age-darkened bronze doors in front. On each vault is their name with their birth and death dates.
Primary sources
- Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta Cone Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collections, The Baltimore Museum of Art.
- The Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art, published in 2001, Cone Archives, Baltimore Museum of Art.
- Kirwin, Liza, Correspondence of Claribel and Etta Cone. , 1987, Archives of American Art Journal. V. 27 No. 2(1987) p. 34.
- Probate inventory of Etta Cone, Maryland State Archives, Baltimore City, Register of Wills - serial #52036, folio #14, Book #308.
- Probate inventory Claribel Cone, Maryland State Archives, Baltimore City, Register of Wills - serial #10225, folio #315, Book #257.
- Will of Etta Cone, May 18, 1949, Maryland State Archives, Baltimore City, Register of Wills - serial #52036, folio #35, Book #233, CR 232, case #690, p. 35
- Will of Dr. Claribel Cone, April 25, 1929, Maryland State Archives, Baltimore City, Register of Wills - serial #10225, folio #531, Book #165, Case #447, p. 61.
- Dr. Claribel Cone, A Remarkable Woman, April 8, 1911, The Baltimore Evening Sun, interview available on microfilm at the library at Morgan State UniversityMorgan State UniversityMorgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...
, and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and University of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of Maryland, College ParkThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
.
Other links
- Finding Aid for the Etta Cone Letters at the University of North Carolina at GreensboroUniversity of North Carolina at GreensboroThe University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...
- Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore Exhibition (2011) at The Jewish Museum (New York)Jewish Museum (New York)The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...