Cone Sisters - Cone Collection

Cone Collection

The Cone Collection includes pieces from world famous artists: Matisse's Blue Nude (1907) and Large Reclining Nude (1935), Paul Cézanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897), Paul Gauguin's Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), and Pablo Picasso's Mother and Child (1922). The Cone sisters collected throughout Matisse's career, accumulating 42 of his oil paintings, 18 sculptures, 36 drawings, 155 prints, and seven illustrated books, as well as 250 drawings, prints, and copper plates from Matisse's first illustrated book, Poésies de Stéphane Mallarmé. Other Matisse works they acquired were the 1917 Woman in a Turban (Lorette), Seated Odalisque, Left Knee Bent, Ornamental Background and Checkerboard (1928), and Interior, Flowers and Parakeets (1924). The 500 works by Matisse in the Cone Collection form the largest and most representative group of his works of art in the world.

The Cone sisters also purchased and acquired many of Picasso's works. Among these were 114 of his prints and drawings from his early years in Barcelona and from his Rose period (1905-1906) in Paris. The Cone sisters also purchased fine arts by American artists, more than 1,000 prints, illustrated books, and drawings. Among these were also a large group of textiles, jewelry, furniture, and other decorative arts. They not only purchased the finest European and Asian artwork, but also Egyptian sculpture, Middle Eastern textiles, Indian metalwork, 18th-century French jewelry, Japanese prints, and African sculpture. Upon Etta's death in 1949, the Cone Collection was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone Wing contains over 3000 works. The estimated value today of the Cone Collection is $1 billion.