It’s not a long shot to say that Claribel and Etta Cone — two upper class sisters who resided in Baltimore, Md., during the Gilded Age — had good taste in art. The socialites frequently crossed the pond to Europe where they bought works by artists who had not yet been labeled “masters” (but would be later).
- Henri Matisse, Large Reclining Nude, 1935. Oil on canvas, 26 1/8 x 36 ¾ inches (66.4 x 93.3 cm). The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, BMA 1950.258. © 2012 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
This includes art by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, and Camille Pissarro. You can get a glimpse of the boast-worthy collection in Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore, showcasing at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art up in Durham.
$6-$12. Exhibit continues through Feb. 10, 2013. Nasher Museum of Art, 2001 Campus Drive. 919-684-5135. www.nasher.duke.edu.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2012.
