Henri Matisse
Etta Cone (V/VI)
1932-1933
Scroll
Henri Matisse
Etta Cone (V/VI)
1932-1933
Physical Qualities
Charcoal with stumping and erasing on four joined sheets of paper, Sheet: 705 × 406 mm. (27 3/4 × 16 in.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.12.69
After Claribel Cone’s death in 1929, her sister commissioned Matisse to execute a memorial portrait of her late sister. He decided to depict Etta as well, and described her as having the “majesty of a Queen of Israel but with less obvious beauty, smooth hair and yet falling in beautiful lines likes those of her face, but with a touching depth of expression, always submissive to her glorious sister, yet attentive to everything.”
By contrast, Claribel was “of a great noble and glorious beauty, beautiful hair falling in ample waves in the old-fashioned way, satisfied and domineering.” Upon completion, Matisse gave Cone four drawings of her sister and six of herself.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1949; Etta Cone, Baltimore; gift of the artist, 1934
Matisse: Menschen, Masken, Modelle
Matisse's Marguerite: Model Daughter
A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore
Cone, Etta. The Cone Collection of Baltimore, Maryland: Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. [Baltimore, MD]: [Etta Cone], 1934, on page 10 and as plate 96e.
Baltimore Museum of Art Art. Cone Collection: A Handbook with a Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1955, page 6.
Pollack, Barbara. The Collectors: Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta Cone. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merill, 1962, frontispiece and detail on back cover, ill.
Baltimore Museum of Art. Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings in the Cone Collection. Revised edition. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1967, p. 13, no. 274.
The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland, 1830-1934. [Baltimore, MD]: [Walters Art Gallery], 1984, plate 87, page 50.
Guillaud, Maurice, and Jacqueline Guillaud. Matisse: le rythme et la ligne. Paris: Guillaud Editions, 1987, plate no. 321 (published as “Etta Cone”).
Senzoku, Nobuyuki, ed. Matisse and Modern Masters from the Cone Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art = Kon korekushon ten. [Tokyo]: "Kon Korekushon" Ten Katarogu Iinkai, 1996, page 107, no. 53.
John Klein, "Matisse Portraits," (London: Yale University Press, 2001), pl. 141, ill.
Valakos, Dorothy. Matisse for Kids. Brochure. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2001, unpaged.
Cozzi, Leslie and Katherine Rothkopf (eds). "A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore." Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2021. ill.
John Klein, "Matisse Portraits," (London: Yale University Press, 2001), pl. 141, ill.
Inscribed: lower right in graphite: "Henri Matisse"
