The Cone Sisters of Baltimore: Collecting at Full Tilt

Over a period of thirty years, sisters Claribel and Etta Cone amassed one of the most acclaimed collections of twentieth-century art in America. Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta were two halves of an idiosyncratic team—Claribel bold and assertive and Etta reflective and sensitive—who used the fortunes of their German Jewish immigrant family to seek out works that inspired and pleased them, regardless of public opinion and without a background in art.

This richly illustrated biography documents their lives from a unique perspective: that of their great niece as told to their great-great niece. Ellen Hirschland and her daughter Nancy Hirschland Ramage delve into Claribel and Etta’s world, following the sisters through letters and personal stories as they travel to meet some of the artists whose work would turn their adjoining apartments into a gallery. They bought works of Manet, Gauguin, Seurat, Rodin, and Degas (among others) and struck up friendships with Picasso and Matisse. The sisters’ experiences in Paris in the 1910s and 1920s provide an exceptional view of the bright artistic ferment in the city at that time. They were two Victorian women from Baltimore buying avant-garde art in the City of Lights, attending salons with friends Gertrude and Leo Stein, and building a collection that would initially puzzle the art world. Only with time would their keen eyes and unwavering taste for masterpieces prove indisputably fine.