THEODORE CLEMENT STEELE Biography - Other artists & entretainers

 
 

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THEODORE CLEMENT STEELE

Name: Theodore Clement Steele                                                       
Born: 11 September 1874                                                             
Died: 24 July 1926                                                                 
                                                                                   
Theodore Clement Steele (September 11, 1847-July 24, 1926) was an American         
Impressionist painter known for his Indiana landscapes. Steele was born in Owen     
County, Indiana, and later moved to Indianapolis after study in Cincinnati,         
Chicago and Munich. He is considered to be the most important of the Hoosier       
Group of painters and his work is widely collected by museums and individuals.     
Steele earned his living primarily as a portrait painter and his portraits         
include one of notable Hoosier Poet James Whitcomb Riley and the official           
portraits of several Indiana governors. Steele exhibited at and was on the art     
selection for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and was elected to the     
National Academy of Design in 1913. He enjoyed plein air, or outdoor, painting,     
which is reflected in many of the landscapes he painted. Steele went through a     
notable change in style after his return from Munich in 1885. Steele's work,       
which in the Munich time period sported drab colors and high contrasts, shifted     
towards a brighter, more vivid color palette after his return to Indiana. Upon T.C. 
Steele's return, his family lived in the Talbot House, or Tinker Mansion, which     
is at what is now 16th and Pennsylvania Streets in Indianapolis. In 1898, Steele   
and J. Ottis Adams bought a home in Brookville, Indiana, which they called "The     
Hermitage." Steele sold his interest in the home to Adams after the death of his   
first wife.                                                                         
                                                                                   
He received an honorary master's degree from Wabash College in 1900 and an         
honorary doctorate from Indiana University in 1916.