Explore: Stella Steyn

(1907 - 1987)

Born in Dublin in 1907 to Russian and German parents, Steyn was educated at Alexandra College and at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin (now the National College of Art and Design). In 1926 she began studies at La Grande Chaumière, Paris and she remained in the city on and off for the next five years. She enrolled at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1931, the only Irish artist to study at the radical German school of art and design. Her time at the Bauhaus coincided with political upheaval in Germany and the school was closed by the Nazis in 1933. Steyn, who was Jewish, returned to the UK in 1932 and lived in London from 1938. She exhibited in a number of prestigious mixed shows with the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Royal Academy, the Tate Gallery and other venues in the 1950s. Steyn’s work is held in the Arts Council Collection and other regional museum collections in the UK.