William Bennett (painter)

{{short description|English painter}}

{{for|the 1784 born painter|William James Bennett}}

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File:The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from the "Illustrated London News" MET DP861606.jpg

William Bennett (1811–1871) was an English watercolour landscape painter.

It is believed that Bennett received his first lessons in art from David Cox. They went on painting trips to beauty spots in north Wales, the north of England and Scotland, with David Cox Jnr (Cox's son) and other artist friends.[http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no44.shtml David Cox Jnr] ("Friends of West Norwood Cemetery") In 1848 he was made a member of the New Water-Colour Society, and contributed landscapes, chiefly of English scenery, to their exhibitions, until his death in 1871. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy (RA), British Institution (BI) and the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA).[http://www.swangallery.co.uk/Watercolours/2-584/Turreted-Farm-in-a-Wooded-Landscape-by-William-Bennett.htm Short biography of William Bennett].

Bennett learnt from Cox the ability to draw with speed, and worked with a restricted range of colours, achieving his artistic effect by "the quickest and most dexterous use of a large brush full of colour dashed with hurried certainty over the roughest paper". In this way he achieved the effect of portraying the initial impact of the scene to the artist, but at the expense of accuracy.Harry Quilter. Notes on watercolour art (from [https://archive.org/details/cornhillmagazine42londuoft The Cornhill magazine, vol. 42]) pp. 413-4.

Bennett lived for a period at "Milford Lodge", New Park Road, in Clapham Park, London (the house has since been demolished); next door but one to David Cox Jnr and his family, who lived at "no. 82" from 1860. He died in 1871 and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery, London. One of Bennett's pupils was Alfred Williams (1832–1905).