Ethel Franklin Betts Bains

American painter and illustrator, 1877–1959

BiographyEthel Franklin Betts Bains, sister of Anna Whelan Betts, spent most of her life in the Philadelphia area. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she trained with Howard Pyle at Drexel's School of Illustration in 1899. She moved to Wilmington in 1900, when Pyle set up studios and classes in Delaware. There she shared a studio with her sister Anna and Dorothy Warren. She remained in Wilmington for two winters, during the second of which she lived in the Pyle household. After leaving Wilmington, she worked in a studio in her parents' barn until her marriage in 1909 to Edward Bains. After her marriage, she limited her commercial work, although she did continue as a portraitist. Her career covered both magazine and children's book illustration. Her earliest illustrations show the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, but as she grew older she developed her own decorative style.

Betts illustrated several collections of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, including While the Heart Beats Young (1904) and The Raggedy Man (1907). She also illustrated Favorite Nursery Rhymes (1906); The Complete Mother Goose (1909).

She was also a member of the Philadelphia Water Color Club and of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she continued to exhibit into the 1920s.

Sources:
http://www.askart.com/artist/Ethel_Franklin_Bains_Betts/21883/Ethel_Franklin_Bains_Betts.aspx

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