Bettina Steinke (June 25, 1913 – July 11, 1999) was an American painter and muralist.

Life

Steinke was born in Biddeford, Maine. Her father was cartoonist and entertainer Jolly Bill Steinke. Her parents moved to New York City when she was young. After graduating from Bridgeport High School, she studied at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

and the Phoenix Art School where she concentrated on portraiture. In 1937 she received her first major commission, to create murals for the Children's Studio in the

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. They were so successful that NBC then hired her as a resident artist to draw portraits of such stars as Fred Allen,

Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" & "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain". ...

and Rudy Vallee. This was followed by her drawing illustrations for a souvenir book of the NBC Symphony Orchestra that included over 100 of her sketches, including

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

. In 1939 Steinke left NBC and was commissioned by

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

to draw portraits of some of its members including Jerome Kern. During World War II she painted portraits of Franklin D. Roosevelt,

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

and Dwight D. Eisenhower. in 1946 she married photo-journalist Don Blair and they spent the next decade traveling the world during with time she produced work for

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

and the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1956 the couple settled in Taos, New Mexico, moving to Santa Fe fifteen years later. 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." Her work can be found in the collections of the

National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Am ...

, Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Fort Worth Art Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinke, Bettina 1913 births 1999 deaths American muralists 20th-century American painters American women painters Artists from Santa Fe, New Mexico Artists from Taos, New Mexico People from Biddeford, Maine Painters from New York City Painters from New Mexico Painters from Maine Cooper Union alumni Women muralists