Aruba – Don Blair and Bettina Steinke, 1946

RARE PICTORIAL MAP OF ARUBA

“Aruba – Netherlands West Indies,” colour lithograph created in 1946 by Don Blair and Bettina Steinke. Size: 89.2 × 42.7 cm. Mounted on linen.

This wall map of Aruba was designed shortly after the Second World War, in the pictorial style then popular, in which cartography and illustration merge seamlessly. The map shows the island just before the sweeping touristic and infrastructural developments of the 1960s and 1970s.

The landscape is filled with humorous and folkloric details: donkeys (with a gold prospector alluding to 19th-century gold mining), goats, aloe fields (“Aruba produces 80% of the world’s supply”), and even the characteristic divi-divi tree. Cultural and economic activities are also depicted, ranging from salt production to cattle raising, and from shipping to the oil refineries at Oranjestad and San Nicolas—the driving force of Aruba’s economy at the time.

Major settlements such as Oranjestad, Noord, Santa Cruz, and San Nicolas are marked, as well as bays, beaches, and striking rock formations such as the Hooiberg and the Ayo Rocks. The road network is drawn schematically, underscoring how rural and uncluttered Aruba still was. A KLM DC-3 is shown approaching the island.

The decorative elements are characteristic of the era. Across the Caribbean Sea, “Señor Trade Wind” blows a steady northeasterly trade wind; at lower left stands a sea nymph, at lower right cacti and agaves. The coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is prominently displayed at the bottom center. The border consists of a continuous frieze of silhouettes of ships, landscapes, and automobiles—a modernist touch reflecting the expanding road and sea traffic of the 20th century.

The touristic future of the island would begin only a few years later.

Don Blair and Bettina Steinke were an American artist couple. Blair (1905–2000) worked on Aruba in the 1940s, first in the oil industry and later in public relations. Steinke (1913–1999) was a successful commercial illustrator and portrait painter. In 1949, they opened a gallery in Claremore, Oklahoma; later, Steinke worked primarily in the American Southwest.

Price: SOLD