Bettina Steinke
(1913-1999)
Bettina Louise Steinke was born on June 25, 1913 in Biddeford, Maine to William “Jolly Bill” Steinke and Alice M. Staples. The Steinke family later moved to suburban New York City where her father hosted a popular children’s radio program, “Jolly Bill and Jane” on NBC Radio.
After high school, Steinke attended the Fawcett Art School in Newark, New Jersey and then Cooper Union in New York City. In 1933 and 1934 she won scholarships to the Phoenix Art Institute in New York City, which was operated by Lauros M. Phoenix.
Through the influence of her father, Steinke was able to land a job assisting him in creating a mural for the 10th anniversary of NBC Radio in 1937. In 1938, Steinke was commissioned to do charcoal portraits of conductors Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski and the 100 members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The portraits were included in a souvenir book with a 10,000 copy first printing. Both the Toscanini and Paderewski portraits are part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D. C.
For the next ten years, Steinke worked as a portraitist and commercial illustrator. At the outbreak of World War II, Steinke, like many illustrators and artists, worked for the government. Employed by the United States War Department, Steinke created portraits of Generals Henry “Hap” Arnold, Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz, to name a few.
In 1946, she married Don Blair, a professional photographer. Together they collaborated on her portraiture. She would sketch the client and Don would take reference photos at the sittings. Steinke’s finished portraits usually took her about a month to complete.
The couple moved to Oklahoma, then Taos, New Mexico and finally settled in Santa Fe. Out west she became interested in painting Native Americans and produced some of her finest work as an artist of modern indigenous people.
In the 60’s, Steinke sold a portrait of Will Rogers to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s permanent collection. This led to portrait commissions for the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. These portraits included Amanda Blake, Joel McCrea, and Barbara Stanwyck. In 1973, Steinke helped to found the National Academy of Western Art. The Academy awarded Steinke the Prix de West award in 1978 for her painting, Father and Daughter at the Crow Fair. In 1980, she won an Award of Merit, in 1984 a Gold Medal, and three Silver Medals in subsequent years.
In 1995, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame hosted a major retrospective of Steinke’s career and she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1996, Steinke was awarded the John Singer Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Society of Portrait Artists.
Bettina Steinke died July 11th 1999.
Source: Art and Influence
Rainbow Dancer I
Artist: Bettina Steinke (1913-1999)
Description: Pastel | Image Sizes: 23 ½”h x 14 ½”w; Framed Sizes: 32 ¼”h x 22 ½”w
Rainbow Dancer II
Artist: Bettina Steinke (1913-1999)
Description: Pastel | Image Size: 23 ½”h x 14 ½”w; Framed Size: 32 ¼”h x 22 ½”w
Bettina Steinke was a portrait painter of worldwide acclaim. Her portrait repertoire reads like a who’s who list of her time … actors and actresses, maestros and conductors, business leaders, politicians, military figures, and under the auspices of the USO, illustrations of wounded servicemen which were sent to their families back home. However, amongst her favorite subjects, were those of American Indians. She once said, “They’re a colorful and intelligent people. Indians feel they belong to this land and that we intruded. They believe that one day everyone else will be gone and they’ll be left. I like that idea.”
Bettina and her photographer husband, Don Blair, often collaborated. He would take reference photos and she would sketch subjects. After establishing a home base in Oklahoma, the couple traveled extensively throughout Central and South America, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and other locales. When they relocated to New Mexico permanently, she became interested in painting American Indians and some of her finest work was that of indigenous people. And we quite agree as evidenced in her pastels of Rainbow Dancer I and II.
