Louis Betts

Louis Betts (October 5, 1873 – 1961) was an American portrait painter.

Betts was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was an artist who remarried after Louis' mother died. His family moved to Chicago where his three younger siblings were born. Betts was able to continue his study of art as did his siblings.

Betts studied with William Merritt Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1894, worked in Chicago and New York.

As the turn of the century approached, Louis Betts was coming of age—an impressionable young artist who was influenced by events in his personal life as well as the world around him. The artist had a long and distinguished career as a portrait painter of high society. He painted hundreds of individuals in public and professional life, exhibited nationally as well as internationally, and was the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Betts was elected into the exclusive ranks of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design, yet he was reputed to be an unassuming,

modest man who avoided notoriety. Bets was made a full member of the National Academy of Design by 1915. He died in 1961.

Karen A. Morgante