Theodore Clement Steele (1847- 1926) was an American Impressionist painter known for his Indiana landscapes. He is considered to be the most important member of the Hoosier Group of painters. He 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. He also executed many landscapes, often painted en plein air.
Born in Owen County, Indiana he later moved to Indianapolis after study in Cincinnati, Chicago and Munich where he was enrolled at the Royal Academy from 1880 to 1885.
In 1894 the Art Association of Indianapolis organized the exhibition Five Hoosier Painters which included Steele, William Forsyth, Otto Stark, Richard Gruelle, and J. Ottis Adams. The exhibition gained regional prominence after traveling to Chicago where it was praised by critics, who referred to the painters as the Hoosier Group. Steele, with the help of Adams and Forsyth, took advantage of this new-found recognition and formed the Society of Western Artists in 1896, a group dedicated to supporting and exhibiting regional artists and their work.
In 1907 Steele purchased a large tract of land in Brown County and began building a home and studio there. Known as the House of the Singing Winds he moved there permanently in 1909. The surrounding countryside inspired Steele and spent much of his time painting out of doors.
He received an honorary master's degree from Wabash College in 1900 and an honorary doctorate from Indiana University in 1916. Steele exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and was on the art selection committee. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1913. In 1922, Steele took a position as honorary professor of art at Indiana University, in nearby Bloomington.
His work is in the permanent collections of Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, IN; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and The White House, Washington, DC, among others.
