Louis Betts Collection
1918-1994
Louis Betts (1873-1961)
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Louis Betts (1873–1961) studied art under his father, painter Edward D.B. Betts, before attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The young Betts also studied in New York under William Merritt Chase. After further travel and study in Europe between 1903 and 1905, he returned to Chicago for several years. In 1910 Betts moved permanently to New York, where he established himself as a society portraitist, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, Macbeth Galleries, and the Carnegie Institute. Betts was president of the Salmagundi Club from 1933 to 1935 and was vice-president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Gathered by Prof. William Pattison, of the University of Chicago, during research on Betts portraits at the university, this collection is comprised of correspondence, exhibition catalogs, published and unpublished material, and photographs and transparencies of Betts’s own work.
Collection access:
Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult the FAQ.
Finding aids by subject
Browse all finding aids
Browse images and media
Oral histories
Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
archives@artic.edu
Printed papers, typescript papers, holograph papers, correspondence, black and white photographic prints, black and white slides and color transparencies.