CHARLES BENTLEY PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
CHARLES BENTLEY
British, 1806-1854
BIOGRAPHY
Charles Bentley was a marine artist who was apprenticed to the engraver Theodore Fielding. He was profoundly influenced by the work of Richard Parkes Bonington and subsequently by his fellow-apprentice and life-long friend William Callow. He combined engraving with watercolor painting and was elected a member of the Old Watercolour Society in 1843. He also exhibited at the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. Bentley painted views of much of the English Coast, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands. He traveled to Paris and Normandy with Callow in 1836, 1840 and 1841.
The artist died of cholera during the epidemic of 1854 and, in its obituary of the painter, The Athenæum noted, “The Old Water-Colour Society has just lost a valuable member in Mr. Charles Bentley and lost before his time, since the papers announce his age to have been 48. In marine landscapes and other subjects of the kind he may be ranked between Messrs. Copley Fielding and Callow."
Museum Collections:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Blackburn Art Gallery, Blackburn
British Museum, London
Bury Art Museum, Bury
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Newport, Wales
Norwich Art Gallery, Norwich
Royal Watercolour Society, London
Graves Gallery, Museums Sheffield, Sheffield
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
