He succeeded his teacher Gerard Bourgonjon at the Academy in Tilburg.
His works include war memorials, free images, altars, pulpits, fonts and pontificalia.
In 1945 he founded the Free Academy of Visual Art in Breda, together with the Dutch artists Dio Rovers and Gerrit de Morée.
He was affiliated with a number of artists' associations, including the North Brabant Association of Visual Artists Jeroen Bosch, Breda (1947–1955), the Brabant Foundation for the Visual Arts and Fine Crafts (1958–1965), Arti et Amicitiae and the Dutch Society of Sculptors.
Steenbergen won several awards: the Academy Award Belgium (1935), the Dutch Prix de Rome for Sculpture (1938), and the gold medal at the Salzburg Biennale (1956).