Art Meets Artist

As Picasso painted the portrait of Gertrude Stein in a studio in Paris littered with objects, Gertrude insisted that the Cone sisters buy the sketches by Picasso that littered the floor for two dollars a piece.  Perhaps Picasso thought he was taking advantage of the sisters… perhaps Gertrude Stein thought she was helping out the impoverished artist.  

If that is what they all thought, then the joke was on them.  The collection of the Cone sisters became the backbone of the Baltimore Museum of Art.  And the Cone sisters themselves? …those gullible Americans… well… they became famous as their collection toured the world. 

The big letters that were draped across museum after museum, all across the country and parts of the world, did not say, “”The Stein Collection”, or “The Picasso Collection”.  Those words said, “The Cone Collection“.  Picasso would have grumbled, “Oh, what advantage they took of me,” the same words he used to describe Gertrude Stein herself after she supported him all those years.  

The Cone Sisters, as collectors, became famous through the art they collected.  

For the artist, the collector is his/her supporter.  But what about the collector?  The collector gets to live vicariousy through the fame of the artist.  The collector can become as famous as the artist.  Art history books are filled with names of famous collectors. 

Do you want to live vicariously?  Are you chasing fame and fortune?  Do you want to be in history books?  Collect art! 

I got to view the collection myself in Washington, DC, and also in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. 

 Go over to the Baltimore Museum of Art and see Gertrude Stein herself with Claribel and Etta Cone around 1903 and view a flash video of the sisters. 

 
The Baltimore Museum of Art-Gertrude Stein with the Cone sisters

Pictures of Gertrude Stein including the painting by Picasso

 

Written by Sandra Collerain Copyright 2009
www.47Solutions.com

Tags: Claribel cone, collecting art, Etta Cone, Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Laurencein, Picasso, the Cone collection

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 1:11 am and is filed under Art Collectors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.