Bettina Steinke
1913-1999
BORN IN
Biddeford, Maine
KNOWN FOR
Genre, native figure, portrait
Some of the following biography is based on information provided by Dr. C.P. Estes.
A painter of portraits, especially Indian subjects, Bettina Steinke was raised in New York City, where she studied at Cooper Union and at the Phoenix School. She worked as an illustrator and married photographer Don Blair, and they often worked together with her as the artist-illustrator, and he, the documentary photographer. They traveled to Central and South America, the Arctic and Alaska where she did portraits of the natives.
At age 24, she earned acclaim for portraits of maestro Arturo Toscanini and all 108 members of the NBC orchestra.
