The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

The Age of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone by Mariel Gabriel is a lush portrait of the burgeoning world of modern art, especially in Paris, in the early 20^th century.  If you love Paris, if you love Matisse, Degas, Picasso, Cezanne and other giants of the time,  and if you have always wanted to be a fly on the wall in Gertrude and Leo Stein’s salon, then this book is a must read for you.

The book’s focus is on sisters Etta and Claribel Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, two spinsters who never shed their conservative, long black Victorian dresses even as they embraced the avant-garde art of the Impressionists and their successors. The Cones’s father, Herman, had a lucrative dry goods business, and their brothers Moses and Caesar became even more successful in manufacturing fabrics. Moses became known as the “King of Denim,” and the family’s success freed Etta and Claribel of any financial worries.

Shy and retiring, Etta met Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo when they were all living in Baltimore. Leo became a mentor, sharing with her the art he had been studying.  Like many other wealthy people of their time (think Isabel Stewart Gardner), the Cone sisters travelled widely and were exposed to the art and culture of Europe. Leo took Etta to the museums in Florence, and, in Paris, he introduced her to the works of Matisse, Degas, Renoir and Cezanne, often taking Etta to meet the artists in their studios.

In 1905, one of Etta’s early purchases was an etching by Picasso. The Cone collection would end up having 113 Picassos . In 1906, she bought her first Matisse and would later have what has been called the largest Matisse collection in the world.  Cone and Matisse became lifelong friends, and she invited the artist to advise her on what he wanted in her collection and in the catalogue she would come to create.

Claribel got her degree in medicine in 1890 and, for several years, pursued a career in science. Gertrude was the Stein who most interested her. They enjoyed an intense relationship until Alice B. Toklas replaced Dr. Claribel as Gertrude’s most intimate friend. Dr. Claribel did medical research in Munich, leaving Germany during the rise of Hitler and joining sister Etta both in Baltimore and abroad in the acquisition of art.

The Steins did more than introduce the Cones to the artists, writers and intellectual circles of the time. Leo and Gertrude had been early acquirers of the artworks, but they were always short on money and in turn came to rely on the Cone sisters to buy paintings from them as a source of income.

Etta and Claribel lived in separate apartments in the same building in Baltimore. When Claribel died in 1929, her acquisitions went to Etta. Every room of Etta’s apartment was stuffed with collectibles, including paintings, sculpture, rare fabrics, pottery, books, handbags, ornate boxes. Even a bathtub was used for holding some of her vast possessions. After Etta died in 1949, the collection eventually went to the Baltimore Art Museum, and in today’s dollars could be worth as much as $1.75 billion.

The Art of Acquiring reveals the profound symbiotic relationship between collectors and artists. Some readers might feel Gabriel didn’t dig down enough. But I was impressed by the deep research, as author Gabriel elaborates on the specific paintings by the great artists in the Cone collection, their subjects, their styles, and their impact on the art world. It is well written, revelatory and a pleasure for readers interested in this aspect of art and society.