Description:Bust-length of subject looking directly at the viewer with a slight smile on her face. She is wearing a black dress or coat and a black broad-brimmed hat that is tied with veiling under her chin. The background is a mottled gold and green.
History:During the late 1890s when Willie Betty Newman studied art in Paris, her portrait was painted by Richard Hall, Finnish-born naturalized Frenchman. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Winter 1987.
Notes:Willie Betty, daughter of Colonel William Francis Betty and Sophie Rucker Betty, was born on January 21, 1863. at the Benjamin Rucker Plantation in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On January 2, 1881, she married J. Warren Newman but they were soon separated. After studying art at the Cincinnati Art School, she continued her training in Paris for twelve years. Upon returning to Nashville in the early 1900s, she accepted commissions to paint portraits of Nashville's most prominent citizens. She died in Nashville on February 6, 1935.
