Born in Jonesboro, Tennessee, her parents were German-Jewish immigrants. Her mother was Helen Guggenheimer, and her father, Herman Cone, was the co-owner of a country grocery store. However with a growing family the store could not support them, and shortly after Etta Cone's birth they sold their share in the store and moved to Baltimore and started a wholesale grocery business. Herman and Helen Cone had ten sons and three daughters.
Etta Cone went to Western Female High School when she was 13. Etta's sister, Claribel, met Leo Stein who had come to Baltimore with his sister Gertrude Stein to live with their aunt, Fannie Bachrach, after they had been orphaned. In 1891 Leo and Gertrude Stein made visits to the Cones.
Etta Cone became the family's house keeper and looked after the rest of the family. In 1896, one of her brothers, Moses Cone, gave her $500 to buy something of her choice to make the parlour comfortable. The American painter, Theodore Robinson had died the year before, and Etta Cone went to a "Widow's Sale" in New York where she bought four of his paintings. She was keen to show them to Leo and Gertrude Stein but they helped to broaden her horizons by enlightening her about the Japanese and European art that they had encountered on their travels. In 1897 Herman Cone died and, at the age of 27 Etta Cone received an inheritance that gave her an income of about $2400 a year.
In 1901 Etta Cone sailed to Naples in Italy with her companions Harriet F. Clark and Hortense Guggenheimer. They arrived in May and were met at the dock by Leo Stein. Over the next few days they all toured Florence, Orvieto, Pisa, and Lucca, until Leo Stein left them for Genoa. The three women then toured Siena, Padua, and Venice. They then went to Munich to visit some of Etta Cone's relatives, and then travelled on to Switzerland and Paris. They arrived at the Hotel Quai du Voltaire to find that Leo and Gertrude Stein had arrived only an hour earlier. At the end of the summer Etta Cone and Hortense Guggenheimer visited London for a brief stay and then travelled to Southampton to meet Gertrude Stein who had arranged to join them on the voyage to the USA. Etta Cone had a trunk full of art that she had collected.
In 1902 Helen Cone died and Etta Cone was released from her house keeping duties. In the summer of 1903 Etta and Claribel Cone met Gertrude Stein in Florence. After a few weeks Gertrude Stein went to join friends in Rome, and shortly afterwards Etta and Claribel Cone travelled to Venice. They then toured Munich, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Antwerp. In mid-September of 1903 they travelled to Paris and found Leo and Gertrude Stein living at 27 Rue de Fleurus where Leo Stein had set up his painting studio. Etta Cone travelled alone to the USA in the autumn of 1903, but she longed again to be in Italy. Gertrude Stein had returned to the USA for the winter of 1903-4, and she and Etta Cone sailed to Genoa in June 1904.
They met Claribel Cone and they all travelled to Florence where Etta and Claribel Cone stayed at the Hotel Helvetia, and Gertrude Stein joined Leo Stein at a villa that he had rented in Fiesole. It was at this time that Bernard Berenson introduced the Steins to the paintings of Cézanne. After four weeks in Florence Etta and Claribel Cone toured Verona, Padua, Venice, and Bayreuth. They went on to Paris and were shown the Cézanne landscape that Leo Stein had bought. Late in October Etta Cone went to spend the winter with friends in Munich. She returned to Paris in the following autumn and rented a flat at 58 Rue Madame. She also rented a piano and took piano lessons.
In the autumn of 1905 the Steins and the Cones visited the Manet Retrospective. For the first time the Cones saw paintings by Henri Matisse, Derain, Manguin, Marquet, Jean Puy, Valtat, Vlaminck, Friesz, and Rouault. In November 1905 Etta Cone was taken by Gertrude Stein to meet Pablo Picasso at his studio while he was painting Gertrude Stein's portrait. Etta Cone bought a water colour and an etching from Pablo Picasso for 20 dollars.
It seems that during this period Etta Cone and Gertrude Stein may have had an affair for a few months. They sailed back to the USA together and during the voyage Etta Cone's concluding remarks in her diary trailed off in an incomplete sentence: "Clear beautiful day which I spent mostly below in a beautiful state of mind, but one which brought out the most exquisite qualities of Gertrude. My vanity... ". In January 1906 Michael and Sarah Stein took Etta and Claribel Cone to meet Henri Matisse at his apartment overlooking the Seine. The sisters bought a drawing and a water colour for 20 dollars.
Gertrude Stein was having difficulty typing her novel Three Lives, and Etta Cone agreed to type it for her. In March 1906 Etta and Claribel Cone were both taken by Gertrude Stein to see Pablo Picasso in his studio and Etta Cone bought eleven drawings and seven etchings for less than a dollar each.
In the winter of 1909/10 Etta Cone was suffering from influenza in Baltimore and employed a pretty 25-year-old nurse, Nora Kaufman. They got on well and in the summer of 1913 they travelled to Europe together. In June they visited Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. They then toured Europe. During the First World War Etta Cone lived quietly in Baltimore, but took Nora Kaufman to meet her family.
Etta and Claribel Cone became much more wealthy as their investments grew. In the summer of 1922 they returned to Paris with Nora Kaufman and were encouraged to spend more on works of art. Etta Cone bought 14 paintings by Favre, 4 bronzes and 22 engravings by Henri Matisse, an etching by Renoir, a painting, a drawing, and 2 engravings by Pablo Picasso, a painting by Vallotton, and 2 paintings by Sarah Stein.
It became routine for Etta and Claribel Cone to travel to Paris each summer. After a month or so Etta Cone would set out on a tour of Europe with Nora Kaufman, or May Nice who was another nurse companion from Baltimore. In notes to Nora Kaufman, Etta Cone signed herself "Q. T" which stood for "cutie", and she referred to Nora Kaufman as "Mac". Between 1913 and 1929 they made nine trips together to Europe.
In June 1924 Gertrude Stein wrote to Etta Cone offering to sell her the typescript of Three Lives for $1000. Etta Cone would have been put out given that she had given her free time to type it, but she simply wrote to decline saying that she needed all her funds to buy a Renoir. Claribel Cone died in 1929 and left her entire collection to Etta.
From 1930 to 1935 Etta Cone spent at least a month each summer in Lucerne. She stayed near the Galerie Rosengart whose proprietor Siegfried Rosengart was her second cousin. Siegfried Rosengart compiled the catalogue of the Cone collection which was published privately by Etta Cone in 1934. After Etta Cone died in 1949 the entire collection was left to the Baltimore Museum and the City of Baltimore. She also left $400000 to build a wing to house the collection.
