Free The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone by Mary Gabriel

indispensable group of people who ensured that the artist was able to do just that. It could have been that Etta was developing an eye for the new art, but it was more likely that, at the beginning, when she purchased works by living artists, she was less interested in the images produced than the artists who produced them.
    Whatever the reason, she continued to buy. Two weeks after she purchased her first two Matisse drawings, Etta bought a Cézanne lithograph. Two weeks later, she revisited Matisse, purchasing a lovely watercolor, Port de Collioure (The Harbor of Collioure), and a drawing. On February 28, she purchased a Renoir lithograph, and on March 17, two Manet etchings. Etta was clearly following Leo's lead in her budding collection—she purchased works by only those artists who had his stamp of approval.
    When not visiting studios and galleries, Etta was busy with a new occupation. Gertrude needed someone to type the manuscript of her book Three Lives, and Etta volunteered. Gertrude said she was inspired to write the book by Cézanne's portrait of his wife, which Leo had purchased and hung in the room where she worked.
    She began writing under the pseudonym Jane Sands, but eventually claimed Three Lives as her own, boldly declaring it to be by Gertrude Stein. By the time she was finished, she was satisfied that the book represented a “noble combination of Swift and Matisse.”
    Three Lives marked the start of a new phase in Etta and Gertrude's relationship. Prior to the typing, they had been on equal footing, in that both were under the influence and at the mercy of a dominant older sibling. Now Etta and Gertrude entered into an arrangement in which Gertrude became the dominant one, and Etta continued her role as the helper. It would be the first time Gertrude had been administered to and she, consciously or not, modeled the relationship on what she had seen of Claribel and Etta's.
    Describing the sisters, Gertrude wrote that Claribel was the “more” of the two—she was older, better educated, more articulate, and more forceful. Claribel belonged to that rare breed that did not consider life's little necessities to be herconcern. She sought an elevated existence of the intellect, but in order to remain at that lofty peak, she needed someone to take care of business.
    Etta, who was that person, fell into the role of caretaker to her older sister. Now that Claribel was in Germany, Etta accepted a similar role in her relationship with Gertrude.
    Gertrude benefited from the relationship in several ways. In addition to having her written scrawl turned into legible type, she had an adoring companion who would support her in her literary pursuits—much as Alice Toklas would for the duration of their relationship.
    Etta's assistance in 1906 was critical to Gertrude because she and Leo suffered a major disagreement at that point. Leo would not say he liked Gertrude's writing, and Gertrude in turn refused to say she liked Leo's painting. Etta, on the other hand, would be sure to support Gertrude's work and consider her friend remarkable for the undertaking.
    Years later, when Gertrude and Etta were no longer close, Gertrude described what led up to Etta's typing of Three Lives . Etta, she wrote, was lonesome and interested in helping, so she agreed to type the book. But Gertrude did not give Etta explicit permission to read the manuscript, so Etta typed the book letter by letter so as not to connect words into sentences and sentences into meaning. After realizing the laborious impact her unstated rule was producing, Gertrude gave Etta permission to read the manuscript, and the typing proceeded more quickly.
    Most likely, that whole narrative was revisionist history, written by Gertrude for the benefit of Alice B. Toklas. When Gertrude wrote of Etta's typing episode, she was well into her “marriage” with Toklas, who made no secret of her dislike for any woman who might have been intimate with Gertrude prior to her