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July 27, 2012
Modern masters on display
Cone sisters’ exceptional art collection is on at the VAG.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Every great art collection has a story. One of the most captivating stories pertains to the collection of the Cone sisters from Baltimore, a selection of which is on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) in an exhibition called Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore. The exhibit was organized in collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the home of the collection, and the Jewish Museum in New York.
This is the first opportunity for Canadians to see some of the famous art amassed by the Cone sisters. In total, there are about 3,000 pieces. Among them are 114 works by Picasso and nearly 500 by Matisse – the biggest Matisse collection in the world – in addition to drawings and paintings by many other giants of European Modernism. Of course, only a fraction of the total number of works traveled to Vancouver.
“The Vancouver exhibition features 49 paintings, sculptures and drawings by Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin and others,” said Ian Thom, one of the gallery curators, in an interview with the Independent. “It also displays about 50 other items: lace, jewelry, textile and the blown-up photo panels that we made ourselves at the gallery. The show reflects the character of the entire collection, its two major points: French painters of the first half of the 20th century plus decorative arts from Europe and Asia.”
The photographs and text panels are truly engrossing, no less than the art pieces, because they outline the lives of the two extraordinary women, the collector-sisters Claribel Cone and Etta Cone.
Claribel was born in 1864, Etta in 1870, to the family of a wealthy Jewish merchant. Both sisters were very much ahead of their time. For example, Claribel studied medicine and had a degree as a medical doctor, a rare feat for a woman in those years. Later, she worked in medical research.
Etta didn’t have a university degree but she managed her father’s household from the time she graduated from high school. Her first art purchase was made in 1898, when, to decorate her family home, she bought several paintings by American painter Theodore Robinson. These paintings started her fascination with visual art. They were also to remain the only pieces by an American artist in the sisters’ collection. One of the Robinson paintings appears in the show at the VAG.
Even before they started collecting art, the unmarried sisters belonged to the intellectual elite of Baltimore. For years, they held a weekly Saturday salon in their apartment. Through their salon, they met the future renowned avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo.
In 1901, when Etta first traveled to Europe, Leo Stein acted as her tour guide and advisor, helping her navigate the European art community. Later, during one of the sisters’ yearly pilgrimages to Paris, the Steins introduced Claribel and Etta to the French modernists, particularly Picasso and Matisse.
Etta bought her first two drawings by Picasso in 1905 for 120 francs. The artist was practically unknown at that time. The following year, she bought her first Matisse – an unpredictably outré choice for such a respectable young American woman. Both artists became the focal points of the growing collection.
In 1906-07, the sisters embarked on a trip around the world. They visited China and Japan, Turkey and Egypt, India and Ceylon. Everywhere, they bought expensive souvenirs: Oriental textile rugs, Russian lace, ornate Indian jewelry and antique bronzes. Some of those “souvenirs,” plus some intriguing photographs from that trip, are included in the show at the VAG.
The First World War interrupted the sisters’ yearly voyages to Europe but, after the war, Claribel and Etta resumed their annual excursions to Paris, where they concentrated on acquiring. Like many collectors, they had “caught the bug,” and the generous stipends from their rich brothers allowed them to become real patrons of the arts, as well as the artists.
The artists appreciated the sisters’ affection. One of the drawings on display at the VAG is a self-portrait by Picasso. It was a surprise gift from the artist, sent to the sisters in a letter. It reads “Bonjour Mlle Cone” at the top of the picture.
The sisters bought the bulk of their collection from the artists themselves – such an approach was almost unheard of among American collectors of that era, especially single women. “It was extremely unusual at the time,” Thom pointed out. “Unlike most collectors, who built their collections through art dealers, the sisters traveled to France frequently and maintained personal acquaintance with a number of artists.”
The sisters’ adjacent apartments became crammed with masterpieces. A few paintings even hung in the bathrooms. At some point, Claribel amassed so many art objects that she had nowhere to live. She moved to another apartment on the same floor, while leaving her previous suite of rooms exclusively for her collection.
One of the most engaging items on display at the VAG is an interactive computer simulation of the sisters’ living quarters and the art accumulated within. Created by the Imaging Research Centre at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, in association with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the program offers a virtual tour of the sisters’ flats. A user can touch the screen at any point to get additional information, turn a corner or move to another room. The tour is based on a series of professional photographs Etta ordered of her and Claribel’s apartments in 1941.
Claribel was so involved in her collecting that she purchased her last painting, Gustave Courbet’s “The Shaded Stream at Le Puits-Noir,” on the day she died in 1929. The painting, a dark, shadowed landscape with a quiet brook flowing into a green, mysterious passage, is included in the exhibit at the VAG. After her death, Claribel left her part of the collection to Etta.
Etta was devastated; the sisters had been very close. When, the next year, Matisse visited the United States, he specifically traveled to Baltimore to express his condolences to Etta. He had always been aware that both sisters were important patrons, but he was amazed at what he saw in their apartments. Much of his life’s work looked back at him from Etta’s walls. After witnessing the reality of the sisters’ collection, he would paint with the idea that Etta might buy his new canvas. He also created a few portraits of both sisters, commissioned by Etta.
One of the gems of the Cone collection – Matisse’s “Large Reclining Nude” – the artist painted with Etta in mind. For several months, he photographed the progress of the painting in different stages of development and mailed those photos, 22 in all, to Etta. Included in the show is a poster with all of those photographs in a row. This unique document chronicles the painter’s creative process, reflecting different backgrounds he tried, different poses and faces for his nude. Etta bought the paintings in 1936 for approximately $5,500, and it has a proud spot on the wall at the VAG.
Another item of the exhibition is worth mentioning – the catalogue of the collection Etta published in 1934. She started working on it soon after Claribel’s death and she dedicated this huge illustrated tome to her beloved sister. Matisse’s posthumous portrait of Claribel decorates the front page.
“She published about 1,000 copies of the catalogue,” said Thom, “and gave them as gifts to her extensive family. She also sent copies to many museums in the U.S. It was remarkable for a private collection at the time to produce a catalogue.”
Made aware of the outstanding collection, the museums of Europe and America started courting Etta but, upon her death in 1949, she left the entire collection to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore opened on May 26 and will be on display at the VAG until Sept. 30.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
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