Albert Sterner was an American illustrator and painter.

Sterner was born in London, and attended King Edward's School, Birmingham. After a brief period in Germany, he studied drawing in Paris with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Gustave Boulanger. He eventually moved to the United States in 1879 to join his family who had previously moved to Chicago. His brother was the architect Frederick Sterner, who had a career in Chicago and Denver before joining his brother in New York.

He began doing lithography, painting, and illustrations. He opened a studio in New York in 1885 and began doing illustrations for magazines including Harper's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Century Magazine, and Collier's. In 1888 he became a student at Académie Julian in Paris. He returned to the United States in 1918.

In 1918, he returned to America and began teaching at the Art Students League in New York.

Institutions that have exhibited his work include the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Carnegie Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sterner's awards include the Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1941.

His New York Times obituary stated that he was perhaps best known for his portraits, but "he was also noted for his nudes, religious subjects, landscapes, still-life work and, in his earlier days, his book and magazine illustrations."