NEW YORK, NY.- Due to a high level of public interest, The Jewish Museum will specially be open two Wednesdays in September (normally closed on Wednesdays) to allow additional visitors to see the exhibition, Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore. On Wednesdays, September 7 and September 14, museum hours will be 11 am to 5:45 pm. Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters, on view through September 25, 2011, presents over 50 works from The Baltimore Museum of Art's internationally renowned Cone Collection, including paintings, sculptures and works on paper by such artists as Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gogh.

Henri Matisse called them "my two Baltimore ladies." Their friend Gertrude Stein wrote a poem about them entitled "Two Women." The sisters Dr. Claribel Cone (1864-1929) and Miss Etta Cone (1870-1949) began buying art directly out of the Parisian studios of avant-garde artists in 1905. Although their taste for this radical art was little understood - critics disparaged Matisse at the time and Pablo Picasso was virtually unknown - the Cones followed their passions and eventually amassed one of the world's greatest art collections. Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore focuses on the remarkable vision of these two Jewish sisters from Baltimore and the personal relationships they formed with of-the-moment contemporary artists as they shaped their extraordinary collection. In addition to masterworks of French art, the exhibition includes textiles, decorative arts, arts of Asia and Africa, photographs, and archival materials to place the Cone sisters' remarkable story in the context of the exciting world of modern art and the artists who made history.Ten of the fine art works and all of the textiles and decorative arts have never been seen in New York City before. The exhibition is organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Following its New York showing, Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore will travel to the Vancouver Art Gallery (June 2 to September 23, 2012).

The exhibition includes iconic paintings by Matisse such as Standing Odalisque Reflected in a Mirror (1923), Interior, Flowers and Parakeets (1924), Large Reclining Nude (1935), and Striped Robe, Fruit, and Anemones (1940). Pablo Picasso's Blue period Woman with Bangs (1902), as well as a Picasso sculpture and several of his early drawings are also on view. Other highlights are Gauguin's Tahitian masterpiece, Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) (1892), Gustave Courbet's The Shaded Stream at Le Puits Noir (c. 1860-65) and Camille Pissarro's The Highway (La Côte du Valhermeil, Auvers-sur-Oise) (1880). Also on display are important paintings by Delacroix, Renoir, and van Gogh.