Baltimore Museum of Art
The Cone Collection places Matisse at the heart of a free art museum with global collections and sculpture gardens in Charles Village.
Artwork inspired by Grace Hartigan
The Baltimore Museum of Art grew far beyond a civic picture gallery. Its Cone Collection preserves the adventurous collecting of sisters Claribel and Etta Cone, whose encounters with modern art brought extraordinary holdings of Matisse to Baltimore. Paintings, sculpture, drawings, and decorative objects reveal how collectors helped shape the history visitors encounter today.
Other galleries widen that story through African, American, Asian, and contemporary art, while the sculpture gardens turn surrounding trees and changing light into part of the viewing experience. A visit can follow color from an interior painting into an outdoor sculpture, without treating either the garden or the collections beyond Europe as an afterthought.
- Collectors
- Claribel and Etta Cone
- Neighborhood
- Charles Village
- Outdoor art
- Two sculpture gardens
Quick guide
- Reserve
- Book free entry; add a special exhibition only if wanted.
- Pair
- Give the Cone Collection and sculpture gardens separate time.
Know before you go
- Start with the Cones
- Read how the sisters selected and lived with their modern art.
- Follow a medium
- Try African sculpture or American decorative arts after the paintings.
- Step outside
- Garden sculptures change as you move around them through the trees.
- Evening option
- Thursday’s later galleries make a shorter after-work visit practical.
Good to know
Free general admission does not include every special exhibition. The outdoor sculpture gardens keep daytime hours even when Thursday galleries stay open later.
Notice these
- Matisse’s shifting color
- Cone collecting histories
- Sculpture silhouettes against trees