Early on in Steele’s life, he aspired to dig deeper and learn more than what was provided to him in his present conditions. While studying in Indiana in the early 1870’s, he admired artists of foreign countries. He believed that the quality and prestige of the schools in the United States did not compare to the schools in European countries. Countries like Germany, France and Italy all surpassed the US in studying art, and this gave Steele a perpetual drive to study in these countries.

The pinnacle of this desire took place after his 1878 move to the Indianapolis block of Fletcher and Sharpe’s, downtown bankers. Many of the artists he met through them had studied in Europe and presented their experiences with much enthusiasm and importance. 

About a year later, a man named Herman Lieber presented Steele with a plan that would take multiple Indiana artists to Europe to study art in Germany for a couple years. Steele grabbed the opportunity, along with a few fellow artists, and obtaining funds and pledging future painting to supporters Steele and his family traveled to Munich, where he studied for two years at the Royal Academy.

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