The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone (18 page)

C
laribel returned to Europe after the war with a mission—to devote her life to collecting.

BMA Collection.

Claribel, whom Picasso had called “The Empress,” posed for a portrait by the artist in July 1922. When it was time to pay him, she hoisted up her skirt and pulled banknotes from a hidden pocket.

Pablo Picasso, Dr. Claribel Cone, 1922, pencil on paper. BMA Collection.

E
tta Cone purchased her first Matisse painting just weeks after meeting the artist for the first time in January 1906.

Henri Matisse, Port de Collioure, 1906, watercolor on paper. BMA Collection.

T
he painting Etta Cone purchased in 1925 (opposite page) is considered the most magnificent of Matisse's 1924 interiors, and remained Etta's favorite Matisse painting throughout her life.

Henri Matisse,
Interieur, fleurs et perruches,
1924, oil on canvas.
BMA Collection.

E
tta purchased her first odalisque in 1923. It was a daring painting for even a male art collector because Matisse's paintings were considered by some to be nothing short of pornographic.

Henri Matisse, Odalisque debout refletée dans la glace, 1923, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

I
n 1925, Claribel purchased the painting for $18,860—10 times the annual salary for an average American worker that year, and the most she ever paid for a work of art. The painting has been referred to as the most important in the Cone Collection.

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry, c. 1897, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

C
laribel Cone purchased the painting that was considered so outrageous it was burned in effigy in Chicago in 1913. It was still considered daring when she bought the painting at a Paris auction in 1926.

Henri Matisse, Nu bleu (“Souvenir de Biskra”), 1907, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

O
n Sept. 20, 1929, Claribel Cone purchased this painting during a stay at Lausanne. The work, with its subdued tones and still imagery, was an unusual choice for a collector who loved virility in art. Claribel died the day she bought it, at age 65.

Gustave Courbet, The Shaded Stream at Le Puits Noir, c. 1860-1865, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

T
here is some indication Etta Cone purchased from Gertrude Stein's collection this Picasso painting shortly after Claribel Cone died. It would have spoken to Etta's mood following the loss of her closest friend and relative.

Pablo Picasso, Femme aux franges, 1902, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

H
enri Matisse surprised Etta Cone in Nice in 1933 by having a model stage a performance of the painting Etta had purchased the year before. One relative said the surprise left Etta “bubbling like a schoolgirl.”

Henri Matisse, Le robe tilleul, 1929-31, oil on canvas. BMA Collection.

E
tta Cone purchased the painting most often referred to as “The Pink Nude” in 1936, possibly as a counterpart to Claribel's “Blue Nude.” Matisse gave Etta 22 photos documenting the development of the painting.