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

some aside for a second look. By the end of their visit, the Cones had purchased eleven drawings and seven etchings for 175 francs, the equivalent of about $2 each. Picasso took the money and placed it in his wallet, which he carried in a breast pocket, fastening the pocket shut with a safety pin.
    It is unclear what the older Cone sister thought of Picasso, the Bâteau Lavoir, the apparent depths to which her younger sister had sunk, or the company Etta kept. It may have been difficult for her to understand that her upright sister, clad in silk shirt waists, long dark skirts, and veiled hats, would consider the outcasts of the Bâteau Lavoir to be her friends.
    But Etta was apparently able to tolerate artists’ foibles that would have scandalized her own set back home. The same Etta, so intrigued by the sordid tales behind Renaissance paintings, willingly condoned, and perhaps even delighted in, the loose living of her artist friends in Paris.

    In March of 1906, Paris played host to another salon—the Salon des Indépendants. Once again Matisse caused a furor at the exhibition with just one painting, Bonheur de vivre (Joy of Life). Matisse had begun work on it while the controversy was still raging in the fall over his Salon d'Automne entries. His new work was bold for its size—about 5 1 / 2 feet by 8 feet—and for its content.
    The painting was based on a pastoral tradition, wherefigures appeared languorous in the landscape. But Matisse's version was considered by most who saw it to be crudely executed. His central figures were outlined in thick dark lines, his sense of perspective adhered to no law, and his images were overtly sexual. The painting was more a caricature of tradition than a new interpretation of it.
    Even Signac, who had previously supported his fellow artist and had also purchased one of his paintings, said Joy of Life showed Matisse had “gone to the dogs.” He was so angry at Matisse “that he went so far as to pick a fight with the painter at the café where the exhibitors and the members of the hanging committee met after the opening.” Once again, Matisse was condemned by the official Paris art world, but not by Leo Stein. Leo found the controversial painting to be the most important of its time, and he bought it.
    Etta may have helped facilitate that purchase. In the midst of the drama, sometime in 1906, Etta bought her first Matisse oil painting, Poterie jeune de Provence (Yellow Pottery from Provence). It was a rudimentary Matisse, with blocks of vivid oranges and reds and blues hastily and thinly applied to canvas. The painting had a half-finished look, with portions of the under-drawing still evident, and a large patch of canvas untouched.
    The work had no relation to the bold painting in the Salon des Indépendants, but purchasing it was a significant step for Etta in part because it involved much more money than she had thus far spent on a single piece of art, and in part because it would be her first of many Matisse paintings (the actual purchase price is unknown.)
    There is some question, too, concerning when exactly she purchased the painting, or whether she purchased it directly from the artist or from the Steins. If Etta made her purchase from the Steins that spring, it may have been to help Leo raisethe money needed to buy Joy of Life. It would have been a very expensive purchase for him, and he wanted it badly even though his “funds were limited.”
    In later years, the Steins often turned to the Cone sisters as a source of ready cash by selling them pieces from their collection. Yellow Pottery from Provence may have been the first of those transactions. Etta no doubt was also caught up in the storm around Matisse as a result of the Indépendants show, and would have wanted to come to the rescue in whatever way she could.

    In April, the circle surrounding the Stein households began to make plans to disperse for the summer. On April 18, Sally and Mike had learned of the