“Interior with Dog,” Henri Matisse, 1934. Oil on canvas.

“Large Seated Nude,” Henri Matisse, 1923-25. Bronze.

$4 Million Renovation Showcases Works by Henri Matisse

BALTIMORE, MD. – The Baltimore Museum of Art will unveil the most ambitious redesign of the galleries housing the famed Cone Collection of post-Impressionist and Modern art in nearly 50 years on Sunday, April 22.

The new galleries focus on the museum’s holdings by the French master Henri Matisse and provide a look at more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by many of the world’s most important artists. The two-year project includes expanding exhibition space by 45 percent, creating eight thematic galleries, and adding a Focus Exhibition Gallery for the display of changing exhibitions, and an Interpretive Gallery with a virtual walk-through of the Cone Sisters’ Baltimore apartment. More of the collection will be on display – including many works never before seen by the public.

The Cone Collection is distinguished by a group of 500 works by Matisse – considered one of the most important holding of the modern master outside of France. The new installation showcases the depth of the BMA’s holdings by Matisse from 1890 to 1940, and centers around masterpieces such as “Blue Nude,” 1907; “Large Reclining Nude” (formerly called “The Pink Nude”), 1935; and “Purple Robe and Anemones,” 1937. The new galleries also feature major examples of his sculpture, works on paper, and groups of odalisques and still life paintings created during the artist’s Nice period.

Baltimore sisters Dr Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone formed this monumental collection at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Between 1898 and 1949, the Cone sisters acquired approximately 3,000 works of art. Etta – the surviving sister – bequeathed the Cone Collection to the BMA in 1950.

The new Cone Wing has been dramatically redesigned to tell the sweeping story of Matisse and reveal the scope of the collection. Eight galleries thematically survey Matisse’s development with works that span nearly his entire career – from his early compositions of the 1890s to his colorful works of the late 1940s. Visitors will be able to make visual connections as each gallery radiates from the Center Rotunda, where several of Matisse’s most important paintings and sculptures are displayed.

A Focus Exhibition Gallery offers changing exhibitions on artists who were influenced by Matisse, beginning with Pablo Picasso. In addition to redesigning the gallery space, the two-year project included the addition of wood flooring, lighting and decorative moldings to create an environment that is intimate and appealing. Previous renovations to the Cone Collection galleries occurred in 1974 and 1986. Since the 1986 renovation, the Matisse paintings in the collection had been displayed in strip metal frames. In 1998, Doreen Bolger – recently appointed as BMA Director – returned the traditional gilt frames to the Matisse paintings in the Cone Collection.

An Interpretive Gallery begins with a vignette that creates the feeling of the Cone apartments with their paintings sculpture, furniture, and decorative objects. A new interactive display provides visitors with an opportunity to step back in time to see how Claribel and Etta once lived by taking a virtual tour of the sisters’ apartments. The virtual tour uses state-of-the-art technology to recreate the Cone apartments as they looked in archival photographs from the 1930s.

Visitors will walk through the apartments once visited by Matisse and come face to face with the sisters’ collection. They will see paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Gauguin, and van Gogh – now part of the BMA’s collection – hanging on the walls. Visitors will even be able to open doors, wander through decorated rooms, and look out the window across a panoramic view of Bolton Hill. The virtual tour of the Cone apartments is a dynamic, innovative and unique experience among art museums throughout the country and was created for the BMA by University of Maryland Baltimore Country’s (UMBC) Imaging Research Center.

The Cone sisters also acquired major paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and illustrated books by Pablo Picasso – numbering 114 in all – as well as paintings by Paul Cezanne, Paul Gaugin, Vincent van Gogh, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Additionally, the Cone Collection features textiles ranging from Coptic fragments to Middle-Eastern silk, jewelry, and furniture; Oriental rugs, African art; Japanese prints; and antique ivories and bronzes. While ambitious in their choices of adventurous art, the sisters mainly acquired small-scale works that could be displayed in their Baltimore apartments.

The Baltimore Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Friday, 11 am to 5 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm, on Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st Streets. For information, 410/396-7100.