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There is no denying that Baltimore, Maryland has great art.  There are so many museums and galleries located within the city and in the surrounding neighborhoods that it is often difficult to decide just where to go next.  Two women put together and incredible collection, that was fifty years in the making.  Etta and Claribel Cone lived their entire lives in side by side apartments in the city, and throughout their years and their travels and their friendships acquired one of the most inclusive and important collections of modern art in the world.

The two became friends many years ago, with artists who either gave them the pieces as tokens of friendship, and the sisters purchased many pieces in order to support the work of their friends.  The collection contains more than five hundred pieces by Matisse.  They also have quite an extensive collection of sculpture and paintings by Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent Van Gogh.  They not only have one of the best collections of today, but they played a role in the evolution of modern and contemporary art.

The Matisse collection alone spans his entire career and offers insight to his evolution as a painter.  The two sisters lived well off of a family trust, so they took to traveling and collecting art.  They often visited Paris, and this is where they met and became friends with these master painters.  Some of Picasso’s drawings they purchased for a couple of dollars.  They would then come home and open their doors to show the public the art that they had purchased.

At the time, these painters who are now widely famous, were unknown and not yet accepted.  But the sister had an eye for what would become some of the most priceless pieces in the history of art.  The collection is part of the permanent display at the Baltimore Museum of Art, located to any fine Baltimore restaurant in the downtown area.  This is a bit of the history of art, a big bit, and one must stop here when in the city, at least for just one day.

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