Lot 176
Bettina Steinke (American, 1913-1999). "Bing Crosby at NBC" watercolor and graphite on paper, ca. 1939-1940. Signed, titled, and dated at lower center and again on gallery paper on verso. This spirited watercolor sketch by Bettina Steinke captures the crooner Bing Crosby mid-performance at NBC during the golden age of American radio. Dressed in a boldly patterned shirt and wide-brimmed hat, Crosby leans into the iconic RCA microphone, his figure rendered in fluid washes and confident strokes. The setting is informal, yet electric - a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a broadcast legend through the eyes of a rising artistic talent. By the late 1930s, Bettina Steinke had emerged as one of NBC's most promising illustrators, having already completed a remarkable series of portraits for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, including renderings of Arturo Toscanini and Ignace Paderewski. Size of painting: 7" W x 10" H (17.8 cm x 25.4 cm); of frame: 14.9" W x 18.3" H (37.8 cm x 46.5 cm)
Her role as resident artist for NBC placed her at the heart of America's cultural transformation from print to airwaves, where stars like Crosby became household names. Steinke's gift was not merely in likeness but in presence - the gesture, atmosphere, and immediacy of the scene. This sketch, created on-site in her NBC studio, exemplifies her training in portraiture and her quick, intuitive draftsmanship honed through years of illustration and later, U.S.O. fieldwork. It also hints at the casual glamour and accessible charm that Steinke brought to a genre often reserved for formal sittings.
A rare surviving example of her early entertainment work, "Bing Crosby at NBC" foreshadows the lifelong career that would take her from New York studios to wartime hospitals, and eventually to the American West, where she became one of the most celebrated portraitists of her era.
Bettina Steinke was a distinguished American portraitist and genre painter whose six-decade career spanned mural commissions, wartime illustration, celebrity portraiture, and iconic images of the American West. Born in Biddeford, Maine on June 25, 1913, she was the daughter of famed cartoonist and entertainer William 'Jolly Bill' Steinke. Bettina studied at the Fawcett Art School in Newark and at Cooper Union in New York City, laying the foundation for a career that combined technical skill with keen psychological insight.
Steinke's breakthrough came in 1938 when she created a suite of charcoal portraits of Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, and every member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra for a commemorative publication. Two of these drawings now reside in the National Portrait Gallery. Throughout the 1940s, she became a sought-after illustrator and portraitist, completing work for ASCAP, Baldwin Piano Co., Aetna, Texaco, and the U.S. War Department. During World War II, she drew portraits of Generals Henry 'Hap' Arnold and Douglas MacArthur, as well as Admiral Chester Nimitz, while also sketching wounded servicemen through the U.S.O.
In 1946, she married photographer Don Blair, with whom she traveled extensively for clients such as Standard Oil and Hudson's Bay Company. They settled in Taos, New Mexico in 1955, where Steinke immersed herself in the landscape and Native cultures that would dominate her later work. By the 1960s, her Santa Fe studio became both a creative hub and home to a new generation of Western artists. Her portraits from this period include major American figures such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, Amanda Blake, and Barbara Stanwyck.
Steinke was a founding member of the National Academy of Western Art and a recipient of its Prix de West award in 1978. In 1995, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame hosted a retrospective of her work (which this pieces was a part of), followed by the John Singer Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1996. Her paintings are held in the collections of the Gilcrease Museum, Philbrook Museum, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Bettina Steinke passed away on July 11, 1999. At her request, her ashes were scattered across the New Mexico landscape she so deeply loved.
This painting was exhibited at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma during a major retrospective of Steinke's career that took place from August 11th to October 29th, 1995.
Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico USA collection; ex-Edmund W. Jacob, trustee of the Don A. and Bettina S. Blair Revocable Trust
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#194684
- Condition: Mounted behind glass in custom matte and frame with suspension wire on verso for display. Has not been examined outside of glass but painting appears to be in excellent overall condition. Signed, titled, and dated at lower center and again on gallery paper on verso.
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