Claribel Cone (1864–1929) and Etta Cone (1870–1949), were active as American art collectors and Baltimore socialites during the first part of the 20th century. Claribel trained as a physician and Etta as a pianist. They met Matisse and Picasso in Paris through their friend Gertrude Stein in 1903 and became Matisse’s most important collectors for the next forty years. The sisters never married, and it is probable that Etta had a brief affair with Gertrude. Matisse who looked forward to their annual visits to France, fondly called them ‘my Baltimore ladies.’

At Etta’s death in 1949 the entire collection was willed to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which added a whole new wing to house it in 1957. In our lecture we will discuss the sisters’ relationship with Matisse, some of whose most celebrated paintings like the seminal Blue Nude (1907) and the Pink Nude (1935) they owned, and also their wider collection of 19th century and modern masters, including Corot, Gauguin, Cézanne and Picasso.