Gertrude M. Steiner, a Forgotten Frederick County Artist

On May 22, 1912, The News reported the death of an artist whose “paintings show a deep inspiration.” This artist was Gertrude M. Steiner, and she made a career painting portraits, landscapes, and sacred images in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Her artwork has recently gained new appreciation through research conducted by Heritage Frederick staff after two of her paintings and a collection of family photographs were acquired by the museum and archives in 2023.

Self Portrait in Oil by Gertrude M. Steiner, Heritage Frederick Collection

Born near Petersville in 1854, Gertrude was the second of four children born to Francis Jacob and Margaret Wissel Steiner. Francis was born in Baden, Germany, and Margaret was from Bern, Switzerland. After immigrating to the United States, the Steiner’s settled along the Ridge Road (today’s MD Route 180) between Jefferson and Petersville. Francis operated the Eagle Mill, a merchant grist and saw mill along Catoctin Creek in a place still known as Steiner’s Hill.

Francis J. Steiner’s “Eagle” Merchant Mill on Catoctin Creek shown on the 1858 Isaac Bond Map of Frederick County. The inset photograph of Steiner’s Mill is from the Jefferson 1774-1999: Frederick County, Maryland by Nancy Cherry (1999).

Gertrude first garnered attention for her work as an artist in her mid-thirties. Described in 1889 as “an amateur artist,” Steiner was apparently self taught as no record of her receiving instruction or attending an institution to study art has been identified. The earliest mentions of Steiner’s artwork in local newspapers relate to two paintings she completed for Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church on Carrollton Manor near Buckeystown.

Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church on Carrollton Manor as it appeared in Gertrude’s lifetime, from the Heritage Frederick Archives.

The first of these large works, measuring 4′ in width and 6′ in height, depicts a story from the Gospel of Luke of a twelve-year-old Jesus teaching the elders and priests in the temple at Jerusalem. The work is entitled “Christ before the Learned Doctors” and was completed by Steiner in 1889 on commission from the Jesuit Brotherhood of the Frederick Novitiate. A second work of equal scale was completed in the same year and depicts the death of Saint Joseph. Both works demonstrate Steiner’s talent for capturing emotion in the many figures featured in each scene. These paintings have been lovingly preserved by Saint Joseph’s Church and are now displayed in the new church building after having hung in the original church for over a century.

“Christ before the Learned Doctors” (left) and “Deathbed of St. Joseph” (right) by Gertrude Steiner, courtesy of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church on Carrollton Manor.

Steiner’s works of religious themes were the most celebrated during her lifetime. According to an obituary from Steiner’s death in 1912 printed in The Baltimore Sun, James Cardinal Gibbons, the Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 to 1921, admired her sacred paintings which were presented to several Catholic Churches throughout his archdiocese. He visited her on one occasion at her home near Jefferson in Frederick County.

Apart from works of religious themes, Steiner was an accomplished portrait painter. Newspaper accounts record her trips to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to visit art exhibitions and occasionally submit her own works for review and/or sale. During these trips, she took commissions for portraits. In a collection of photographs from Steiner’s family acquired last year by Heritage Frederick is a cabinet card portrait made in Baltimore. On the reverse of this cabinet card are notes for Gertrude indicating that the subject of the photograph was having her portrait painted by the artist.

A cabinet card photograph from one of Steiner’s portrait commissions and its inscription on the reverse (left). Newspaper abstracts documenting Steiner’s trips to sell paintings and collect commissions for portraits.
In addition to her own self portrait, Heritage Frederick also preserves a portrait in oil of Gertrude’s brother-in-law Eugene Etchison.

Gertrude Steiner died in May 1912 after battling stomach cancer at the age of 58. For the last several years of her life, she lived with her sister Emma and her husband, Eugene Etchison, at their home in Buckeystown. Gertrude was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Petersville with her parents and siblings. Her obituary in The News recorded “Miss Steiner will be remembered in Frederick by the many beautiful paintings she has exhibited year after year at the Frederick Fair…her pictures were as dear to her as her family and for years they had almost been her life.”

The Michael Mill House at Buckeystown where Gertrude lived with her sister and brother-in-law during the last years of her life (left). Gertrude Steiner’s obituary from the May 22, 1912 edition of The News (right).

Heritage Frederick would like to thank St. Joseph’s Catholic Church for allowing us to photograph and feature Gertrude Steiner’s paintings displayed in their church as part of this article.

September 11, 2024 by Jody Brumage, Heritage Frederick Archivist.

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