Tale of Two Sisters

In the buzzing excitement of Paris' Salon d'Automne, two proper Baltimore sisters looked about them aghast. "Surely," said the older, "we are not expected to take this art seriously!" Even the painters --Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Rouault--were unknowns. It was 1905, and for the two Cone sisters. Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta, it was the year of their baptism into a new world.

Warmed by the enthusiasm of three expatriate Baltimore friends--Gertrude Stein and her brothers Leo and Michael --the Cone sisters were soon heads over heels in modern art. At Gertrude Stein's urging, Miss Etta traveled to Picasso's grubby Montmartre studio, picked up a handful of drawings for 100 francs. The sisters met young Matisse, started buying his work. They were off to a glowing start toward building their fabulous collection of modern French art, today valued at $3,000.000.

This week Manhattan's Knoedler Art Galleries is giving New Yorkers a rich sampling of what the two wealthy Baltimore spinsters accomplished in a lifetime of tasteful collecting. The 67 paintings, drawings and sculptures (chosen from the Cone Collection of more than 350 paintings and drawings and 50 sculptures) are also a tribute to the abiding good taste of two strongly different personalities.

Skewers & Old Lace. Dr. Claribel was an early feminist and a pioneer female medical graduate (although she never practiced). She sailed boldly through life, swathed in ankle-length dresses and huge Spanish shawls, topped off with Hindu skewers in her coiffure. Once, at the opera in Munich, Kaiser Wilhelm II offered Dr. Claribel his arm, on the assumption that she was a duchess. In art, Dr. Claribel's choices included Matisse's early Blue Nude (1907) and Cezanne's monumental Mont Ste Victoire. In sharp contrast, soft-spoken Miss Etta, an accomplished pianist and lover of old lace, bought glowing Matisse interiors, a Manet pastel, and Picasso's finely drawn, classic Mother and Child (TIME, Sept. 1, 1952). Both sisters were sketched by Matisse and Picasso. But back in Baltimore, the neighbors decided that the Cones had become "mental cases." Undaunted, the two sisters, with their bachelor brother, turned the 17 rooms of their adjacent apartments into a private museum. In time every inch of wall space (including Dr. Claribel's bathroom) was covered with paintings by Derain, Gauguin, Braque, Cezanne and Matisse. The three-foot-wide corridor and living rooms were crowded with Matisse drawings and with sculpture by Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Maillol and Matisse. The two sisters made about 20 trips to Europe, each time returning with more paintings, heavy furniture and ornate boxes (in which Miss Etta kept laces, Dr. Claribel her unopened mail).

Bronzes & White Gloves. Dr. Claribel, before her death in 1929, advised her sister to give their collection to the Baltimore Museum of Art only "when the spirit of appreciation for modern art in Baltimore becomes improved." Miss Etta devoted the next 20 years to caring for the collection, cleaning the pictures herself, insisted movers wear white gloves when handling pictures. While rounding out the collection with 19th century French masters, she increasingly concentrated on the work of Matisse. Today the collection of 42 Matisse oils (spanning the years from 1895 to 1947) and 18 bronzes provides a superb record of Matisse's development.

When Miss Etta died, aged 78, six years ago, Baltimore's tastes had at last caught up with the Cones. She bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum not only the collection but also $400,000 to house it. This spring the museum plans to break ground for the new wing.

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