Ethelbert White
Portrait of Betty, c. 1925
Oil on canvas
22 x 18 inches
Provenance
The Artist's Family
Note: Betty and Bertie White married in 1911 and were inseparable companions for over 60 years. A great friend of the dancer, Margaret Morris, Betty was encouraged to pursue her own interest in free and energetic dancing. Writing in her autobiography, Kathleen Hale recalled: ‘Bertie played the guitar and sang while his wife Betty pranced, bounced and gyrated in wild gypsy-like dances of her own invention... Betty was apt to become over-excited by her own performance and unable to stop, while Bertie seemed mesmerised by her whizzing vitality.’