Cone collection dazzles at BMA
Back in Charles Village after touring the United States and Canada, the famed Cone Collection of artwork and cultural artifacts is once again on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA).
Collected by Etta and Claribel Cone from 1898 to Etta's death in 1949 - and subsequently donated to the BMA - the Collection boasts more than 500 works by the famed French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse, along with numerous souvenirs, keepsakes and works by other artists from his time.
These artists are among the most famous in the world and include Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Pissarro, Picasso and the sculptor Rodin. The collection is an ongoing exhibit at the BMA, so no admission is charged for entry.
This collection would not exist without the work of the Cone sisters. Independently wealthy, Claribel was a medical doctor - when few other women were - and Etta Cone was an accomplished musician, a fact that's often reflected in the musically-themed pieces she chose for the collection.
Together they amassed approximately three thousand objects in total, out of a compulsion to seek and acquire objects of beauty.
"Now that I stop to reason about it, it is silly foolishness, this collecting of things," wrote Cone, "but it must have some solid foundation - some foundation deep in the hearts of people . . . It is the craving for beauty that is such a vital function of the human soul."
Matisse was the Cone sisters' favorite artist, so it's natural that his works fill the bulk of the display space dedicated to the collection. In addition to the works themselves, a section of the Cone wing has been modeled to look like the interior of the sisters' apartment. The home of the Cones was a place in which treasured works of art covered the walls of every room and the drawers were filled with odd knick-knacks, collected to please the sisters' taste for beauty. For this reason, even if you dislike the art of Matisse or his contemporaries, the exhibit is worth a look.
Collected by Etta and Claribel Cone from 1898 to Etta's death in 1949 - and subsequently donated to the BMA - the Collection boasts more than 500 works by the famed French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse, along with numerous souvenirs, keepsakes and works by other artists from his time.
These artists are among the most famous in the world and include Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Pissarro, Picasso and the sculptor Rodin. The collection is an ongoing exhibit at the BMA, so no admission is charged for entry.
This collection would not exist without the work of the Cone sisters. Independently wealthy, Claribel was a medical doctor - when few other women were - and Etta Cone was an accomplished musician, a fact that's often reflected in the musically-themed pieces she chose for the collection.
Together they amassed approximately three thousand objects in total, out of a compulsion to seek and acquire objects of beauty.
"Now that I stop to reason about it, it is silly foolishness, this collecting of things," wrote Cone, "but it must have some solid foundation - some foundation deep in the hearts of people . . . It is the craving for beauty that is such a vital function of the human soul."
Matisse was the Cone sisters' favorite artist, so it's natural that his works fill the bulk of the display space dedicated to the collection. In addition to the works themselves, a section of the Cone wing has been modeled to look like the interior of the sisters' apartment. The home of the Cones was a place in which treasured works of art covered the walls of every room and the drawers were filled with odd knick-knacks, collected to please the sisters' taste for beauty. For this reason, even if you dislike the art of Matisse or his contemporaries, the exhibit is worth a look.
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