Henry C. Balink

Henry Balink (1882 - 1963)

Henry Balink was born in Amsterdam and began his early training as a painter at the Art Institute of Rotterdam. In 1909 he entered the Royal Academy, and five years later, the young artist visited New York and later, Chicago. He soon traveled West, inspired by a travel poster he saw in a railroad terminal. He stayed in Taos briefly before settling in Santa Fe in 1924. From Taos and Santa Fe he began to explore Indian country, eventually making portraits from 63 tribal groups. Prized for their historical and ethnological values, Balink's Indian portraits, landscapes and murals capture the character of a people and a way of life the artist saw changing quickly and irrevocably.