Anna Whelan Betts

Anna Whelan Betts was an illustrator and teacher best known for her depictions of Victorian women in romantic settings. She was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Her most notable teacher was Hartford-born American Immpressionist Robert Vonnah, who is associated with the colony at Old Lyme.

Betts traveled to Paris and studied privately with a French painter. Upon returning to Philadelphia, she enrolled in Howard Pyle's first illustration classes offered at Drexel Institute. Pyle (1853-1911) taught many illustrators who, like Betts, are now considered part of the Brandywine School.

Her work was regularly published in Colliers, Century Magazine, Harper's, and St. Nicolas. Her illustrations were used in books published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and books by Sarah Orne Jewell and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

When her eyesight failed, she taught at a boy's school in New Hope, PA where she lived with her sister, Ethel, who was also an artist.

-Cynthia Cormier, Director of Education

April 2020