Bettina Louise Steinke

Place: Biddeford

Born: 1913

Death: 1999

Biography:

Bettina Steinke was born on June 25, 1913 in Biddeford, Maine to William 'Jolly Bill' Steinke and Alice M. Staples. She studied at the Fawcett Art School and became a commercial illustrator, painter, and portraitist. Steinke is best known for her portrait commissions and for her Native American portrait and genre paintings. She received her first major commission in 1937 to create murals for the Children's Studio in the National Broadcasting Company. She then worked as a resident artist for NBC, drawing portraits of stars such as Fred Allen, Kate Smith, and Rudy Vallee. Steinke left NBC in 1939 and was commissioned by ASCAP to draw portraits of some of its members. During World War II, she painted portraits of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1946, she married photo-journalist Don Blair and spent the next decade traveling the world. In 1956, the couple settled in Taos, New Mexico, moving to Santa Fe fifteen years later. Steinke's work can be found in the collections of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Fort Worth Art Museum. She was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1995 and the John Singer Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Society of Portrait Artists in 1996.