Betts painted such subjects as Emerson Hough, Hamlin Garland, Cardinal Mundelein, William O. Goodman, Drs. William and Charles Mayo, Dr. Goodspeed of the University of Chicago, the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, as well as graceful groups of children. He insisted on simple and beautiful costumes; and in some instances created outdoor backgrounds, works of art in themselves, revealing his ability in landscape, which was a part of his general artistic excellence.

Louis Betts helped found the artist colony in Park Ridge, Illinois, is represented in the Art Institute of Chicago and elsewhere, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Source:
Cuthbert Lee, Contemporary American Portrait Painters,” Illustrating and Describing the Work of Fifty Living Painters