Visual art / Civil rights & activism
Betsy Graves Reyneau
1888–1964 · portrait painter
Painter raised in Detroit whose portraits of prominent African Americans, including Detroit's Joe Louis, toured the nation from 1944 to 1954.
- Born
Battle Creek, Michigan- Died
- Birth name
- Betsy Graves
- Detroit years
- 1890s–1910s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Betsy Graves was born in Battle Creek and raised in Detroit, a granddaughter of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Benjamin F. Graves. As a young painter she was chosen by the Circuit Court of Detroit to paint her grandfather's portrait, without her estranged family knowing. When she first exhibited it, she signed only with her initials, because the Michigan artists' group showing it did not accept work by women. She became best known for a series of portraits of distinguished African Americans for the Harmon Foundation's exhibition Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin, which, together with portraits by Laura Wheeler Waring, toured the United States from 1944 to 1954 as a statement against racism. Her sitters included Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall, Detroit's heavyweight champion Joe Louis and George Washington Carver, whose portrait became the first of an African American to enter a national American collection. Most of the series is now in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Highlights
- Painted her grandfather, Justice Benjamin F. Graves, for the Circuit Court of Detroit
- Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin toured the US, 1944–1954
- Sitters included Joe Louis, Mary McLeod Bethune and Thurgood Marshall
- Her Carver portrait was the first of an African American in a national collection
- Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (1996)