Cone (1870-1949)

US art collectors. Claribel Cone (1864-1929) and Etta Cone (1870-1949) were sisters who established an artistic salon and began collecting antiques, textiles, and modern paintings. The sisters amassed an impressive collection of modern and contemporary French art.

They were both born in Jonesboro, Tennessee. Their family moved to Baltimore (c. 1870), and their brothers founded the Cone Mills, a textile business. The sisters studied locally, and Claribel attended the Woman's Medical College of Baltimore, Maryland, then worked in the pathology laboratory of the newly founded Johns Hopkins Medical School 1894-1903. They were friends of Gertrude and Leo Stein, who briefly lived in Baltimore in 1891, and the sisters became frequent guests of the Steins in France. After both sisters died, their funds and collection were bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art.