*Two* Women to Know: The Cone Sisters
There were two of them, they were sisters, they were large women, they were rich. — Gertrude Stein, on Claribel and Etta
(image via The Baltimore Museum of Art)
Don't you feel sometimes that for one super glorious, disgustingly gorgeous period of time in Paris everyone incredible was just friends with everyone else who was incredible? Claribel and Etta Cone would gallivant around Europe with *their close, personal friend,* *the literary GREAT* *GERTRUDE STEIN.* And they'd crash at Gertrude's place to throw these sparkling fabulous soirees and people like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and more would just show up unannounced, to the delight of every newcomer.
Simply put, they had good taste.That's actually how the Cone Sisters amassed a massive private collection of burgeoning art, from their travels and artist friendships. Claribel and Etta both never married. They owned adjoining apartments in Baltimore and decorated the walls with original works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, Paul Cezanne and more. At the time of Etta's death in 1949, she and her sister had collected more than 3,000 paintings, sculptures and sketches.
Gertrude Stein (yes, *that* *Gertrude* *Stein*) called them her "shopper friends."
Add to your reading list:
The Cone Sisters of Baltimore (Ellen B. Hirschland)
Two Sisters (Marica Talley)
The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone (Mary Gabriel)
Read more:
"My Two Baltimore Ladies" (The Cone Collection)
A Tale of Two Sisters and their Seriously Good Eye for Art (NPR)
Collecting Matisse and the Modern Masters: the Cone Sisters of Baltimore (The Jewish Museum of New York)
Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters (Duke University)
Two Baltimore Ladies: The Art of the Cone Sisters (The Juilliard Journal)
Gertrude Stein and the Baltimore Blues (Baltimore Style)
Sisters in Art and Life (Art in America)
The Cone Sisters: Shoppers or Conoisseurs? (The New York Times)
The Cone Sisters of Baltimore (Vogue)
** Thank you to Sophie Brookover for recommending today's ladies to know. Subscribe to Sophie's newsletter, Two Bossy Dames, for even more lady news. **
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