Anna Whelan Betts

Who was Anna Whelan Betts?

Anna Whelan Betts was an American illustrator and art teacher who was noted for her paintings of Victorian women in romantic settings. Betts is considered one of the primary artists of the golden age of American illustration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Art historian Walt Reed wrote "her work was characterized by its great beauty and sensitivity.

Betts was born on May 15, 1875 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the oldest of three children of the physician Thomas Betts and Alice Whelan. Her sister, Ethel, would also become an artist. Betts studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia with Robert Vonnoh. After graduating, she moved to Paris where she was tutored by the French painter Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois. Upon returning to the United States, she studied illustration under Howard Pyle, founder of the Brandywine School. Betts's first published illustration was for Collier's magazine in 1899. Her work later appeared in many of the popular magazines of the early 1900s including Century Magazine, Harper's, The Ladies’ Home Journal, and St. Nicholas Magazine.