The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone (17 page)

BMA Collection.

Etta, Claribel, and Aimee Guggenheimer on ship bound for Europe, May 1903.

D
uring her trip to Europe in 1903, Etta Cone kept a detailed diary of her day's pursuits, documenting her development as an art connoisseur and a collector.

Florence, 1903. BMA Collection.

G
ertrude Stein, Etta Cone, and Claribel Cone (left to right) met in Italy in 1903 during the first of the sisters’ many trips abroad together.

BMA Collection.

M
ichael Stein (right) took care of his younger brother Leo and sister Gertrude after the death of their parents, providing them with a modest income for life through the sale of their father's railroad franchise. The three eventually settled in Paris, Leo and Gertrude at the rue de Fleurus, and Michael and his wife Sally around the corner on the rue Madame, early 1906.

BMA Collection.

L
eo Stein introduced Etta Cone to the new artists in Paris in 1905, a period when one historian said Leo was “possibly the most discerning connoisseur and collector of 20th century painting in the world.”

M
ichael Stein and his wife Sally were among the first Americans to support Henri Matisse, filling the walls of their Paris apartment with his works. It was Sally Stein who introduced Etta Cone to Matisse.
Left to right: Michael, Sally, Matisse, Allan Stein, and Hans Purrmann, late 1907.

BMA Collection.

M
oses Cone and his wife Bertha accompanied Etta and Claribel on a world tour that took them to Egypt, China, Turkey, Greece, and India. During the trip, the Cone sisters began building their textile collection, which was considered at one point the second most important in the world.

India, 1907.
BMA Collection.

Claribel trying on Near Eastern robes, about 1903.

BMA Collection.

D
uring a visit to North Carolina in June 1908, Etta Cone received a letter from Gertrude Stein in Paris that contained a self-portrait by Picasso. Etta declared, “I love Picasso and have him & his full tummy before me always. . .”

Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait (Bonjour Mlle Cone), 1907, pen and ink on paper. BMA Collection.

C
laribel, living in Munich during World War One, thrilled at being mistaken for royalty as she roamed the great city.

c. 1915-1916. BMA Collection.

G
ertrude and Alice lived at the rue de Fleurus, which at the turn-of-the-century was the center of the radical in art, but after World War One primarily attracted a crowd interested in writing.

Alice B. Toklas (left) and Gertrude Stein, rue de Fleurus, Paris, 1922.

Gelatin Silver print. BMA Collection.

1917. BMA Collection.

Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein spent part of World War One delivering aid in France in a car they called “Auntie.”