George Frederick Bensell (January 10, 1837 – May 26, 1879) was an American
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
and illustrator, usually known as George Bensell, G. F. Bensell or George F. Bensell. He is best known for his paintings and role in forming the
Philadelphia Sketch Club
The Philadelphia Sketch Club, founded on November 20, 1860, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of America's oldest artists' clubs. The club's own web page proclaims it ''the'' oldest. Prominent members have included Joseph Pennell, Thomas Eaki ...
.
Life and family
Bensell was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, the son of Edmund Shippen Bensell and Margaret (Sperry) Bensell. His younger brother was artist
Edmund Birckhead Bensell
Edmund Birckhead Bensell (June 11, 1842 – November 24, 1894) was an American artist and illustrator, usually known as E. B. Bensell. While an accomplished painter, he is best known for his ink drawings, particularly his illustrations for Charles ...
. As an adult he lived in the
Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. Bensell married, June 7, 1871, Josephine Crissman, of
Milford Milford may refer to:
Place names Canada
* Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia
* Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia
* Milford, Ontario
England
* Milford, Derbyshire
* Milford, Devon, a place in Devon
* Milford on Sea, Hampshire
* Milford, Shro ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. They had three children, Paul, Sperry, and Grace Bensell, all of whom died young. He died at the age of forty-two in Philadelphia. After the deaths of her children and husband Josephine returned to Milford, where after two decades of widowhood she married J. C. Westbrook in 1900. She died after a brief illness in October, 1907.
Career
Bensell initially studied with the artist
John L. Lambdin; he and his brother Edmund also both attended and graduated from the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...
. Afterwards he was named an Academician and was an instructor there.
As an artist Bensell was primarily a painter, specializing in portraits, landscapes, historical and "poetical genre" subjects for a wealthy clientele. His secondary occupation was that of illustrator in the magazines and books of his day, in which he often collaborated with his brother.
In 1860, while still students, the two brothers joined with four other students to form the
Philadelphia Sketch Club
The Philadelphia Sketch Club, founded on November 20, 1860, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of America's oldest artists' clubs. The club's own web page proclaims it ''the'' oldest. Prominent members have included Joseph Pennell, Thomas Eaki ...
, one of America's oldest existing artists' clubs. It first met in Bensell's Philadelphia studio. A lifelong member, he served as its first president. and held the office on two later occasions as well. The brothers' enthusiastic abolitionist feelings influenced its early political sentiments, and many of their early sketches were published in its popular publication, the ''Sketch Club Portfolio''.
General references
Ask/Art Academic entry*Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. ''Who Was Who in American Art: 400 years of artists in America''. 2d. ed. 3 vols. Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1999.
*Groce, George C., and Wallace, David H. ''The
New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564- 1860''. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1957.
*Hotchkin, Samuel Fitch.
Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill'. Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler & Co., 1889, pp. 101–102 (sketch on grandfather, Dr. Charles Bensell).
(includes biographies on George F. Bensell and E.B. Bensell)
*Robeson, Susan Stroud, et al.
An Historical and Genealogical Account of Andrew Robeson of Scotland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and of His Descendants from 1653 to 1916'. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1916, pp. 146, 230.
*Samuels, Peggy and Harold. ''The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1976.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bensell, George Frederick
1837 births
1879 deaths
Painters from Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni
19th-century American painters
American male painters
19th-century American illustrators
19th-century American male artists