The Remarkable Cone Collectors

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Parisian cognoscenti sniffed at avant-garde artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. But Claribel and Etta Cone, sisters from Baltimore, bought their works anyway, assembling what would become known as one of the world’s greatest art collections. More than fifty of the Cone sisters’ possessions—including masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Renoir, van Gogh, Pissarro, and Courbet—are on display at the Nasher Museum of Art through February 10 as part of the traveling exhibition “Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters.” The show offers an intriguing look at the Cone sisters’ lives, including a virtual tour of their adjoining Baltimore apartments.