BENTLEY, Charles

English painter and engraver. The son of a carpenter in Tottenham Court Road, London, he was apprenticed as an engraver to Theodore Henry Adolphus Fielding (1781-1851) and while working for him engraved a number of Richard Parkes Bonington’s watercolours. These profoundly influenced his own development, and echoes of Bonington and Copley Fielding (Theodore’s brother) can be found in most of his works. He became a close friend of William Callow (1812-1908), with whom he made a number of sketching tours to the Normandy coast and Paris. He also travelled throughout the British Isles.

Bentley never exhibited at the Royal Academy but showed 209 works at the Old Water-Colour Society between 1834 and 1854 and also at Suffolk Street. He died from cholera at 11 Mornington Place, Hampstead.