Anna Whelan Betts (1875-1952) was an American illustrator and art teacher who was most 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.
Betts was born in 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
Courtois. Upon returning to the United States, she studied illustration under
Howard Pyle, founder of the
Brandywine School. Betts’ 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. Her book illustrations appeared for the first time in 1904 in
Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd's
Nancy’s Country Christmas. Betts was honored as a fellow at the Pennsylvania Academy and won several medals including a bronze medal at the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915) in San Francisco.
After her eyesight began failing in 1925, Betts was advised to retire from illustration. She joined the faculty of the small private boys' school,
Solebury School, where she worked as an administrator, hostess and art teacher. In 1944, Betts retired from teaching and moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania to live with her sister, the illustrator
Ethel Franklin Betts.