Betty Lane: The Road Less Taken

Betty Lane was born in 1907 in Washington D.C., the daughter

When World War II began, Betty, her husband and son

of a Marine Corps General. To study art in Paris was Betty’s

evacuated to Canada. They had little money. Betty cared for

greatest dream. With finance from a wealthy uncle and her

her child and worked when she could. It was in Canada that

sister as a chaperone, she was off to France in the fall of

she felt that she had hit her stride as a painter. While still in

1928. In Paris, she studied with André L’Hote.

her twenties, she had decided to brave convention to pursue a life in art. She wrote “I knew I was still ignorant and not a

She returned to the U.S. after two years and the Phillips

good painter, but I was my own painter, and I would have to

Memorial Gallery in Washington became Betty’s haven and

find out – not be told.”

inspiration. Phillips, the millionaire art patron, gave her

rarely paint like them.

She would know many artists but

a show in April of 1930. A newspaper headline announced “Betty Lane Finds Fame at 23.”

In 1950, after moving to the US, Betty became a teacher. After fourteen years in the classroom – all but one at Miss Porter’s

Soon after, Matisse took notice of one of her paintings at the

School in Connecticut – she took early retirement on Cape

Phillips. A museum staffer reported “... Matisse discovered

Cod, where she continued to paint, happily and incessantly,

Miss Lane’s picture and demand to know who did it? And

until her death in 1996. Her style and subject matter evolved

when I described her to him he grunted many “Oui, Oui’s” and

remarkably over the years but her determination to go her

told us it pleased him very much: “Cela me plait beaucoup.”

own way never changed.

Despite all this, Betty was not sure what to do with her life.

Today, Betty’s work is in permanent collection at the Philllips

In 1931, she married filmmaker Gerald Noxon and lived in

Memorial Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of New York and

England amid glittering intellectual company – surrealists,

the Cape Museum of Art.

members of the Paris art world, and the pioneering documentary film movement.

- Nicolas Noxon Son of Betty Lane

MAJOR EXHIBITIONS: 1931 Philips Memorial Gallery, Washington D.C. | 1941 Galerie St. Etienne | 1941 Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C | 1944 Galerie St. Etienne | 1945 Ontario Society of Artists | 1948 Cape Cod Art Association | 1948 Forty-Fourth Gallery, New York, NY | 1958 Scargo Gallery, Dennis, MA | 1958 Carl Bredemeier Gallery Buffalo, NY | 1973 Ethel Putterman Gallery Orleans, MA | 1984 Cape Cod Conservatory | 1997 Betty Lane: Painting a Life, Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis MA | 1998 Julie Heller Gallery.

Provincetown, MA

1930

NATIVITY, 1930 16 x 12 INCHES | OIL ON CANVAS

1930s

134 CUNNINGHAM PLACE, 1932 9 x 12 INCHES WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

SEASIDE POINT..., c. 1930s 9 x 13.5 INCHES WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1939

RYE, 1939 18 x 22 INCHES | OIL ON BOARD

1940s

CHIC BY THE SEA, c. 1940s 11.5 x 9 INCHES WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

RAKING BY THE BEACH, c. 1940s 10 x 14 INCHES WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1943

HOUSE IN CANADA, 1943 15 x 18 INCHES | WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1943-1944

THAW, 1943 16 x 20 INCHES OIL ON BOARD

DRAGON ROUGE, 1944 16 x 20 INCHES OIL ON BOARD

1957

FRENCH ONIONS, 1957 18 x 24 INCHES | OIL ON BOARD

1960

LOTUS NUDE, 1960 17 x 15.5 INCHES OIL ON BOARD

DOGS AND YELLOW ROCK, c. 1960s | 10 x 16 INCHES | OIL ON BOARD

We are staying open late to welcome artists, collectors, and interested community members to come explore the work of Betty Lane and a curated show of great American Modernism. The night will feature a chance for good conversation, refreshments, and a no host bar. Please join us.

Sullivan Goss AN AMERICAN GALLERY

7 East Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 730-1460 P LE A S E VISIT WEBSITE FOR THIS EXHI B I T: h t t p : / / www.sullivangoss.com/ exhibits/bett y _ l a n e _ 2 0 0 6 . a s p

COVER: ROUTE 7 TO ALEXANDRIA, 1941 22 x 18.25 INCHES | OIL ON CANVAS

Prsrt Std. U.S. Postage PAID Santa Barbara, CA Permit No. 553