John Prentiss Benson (also John P. Benson) (1865–1947) was an American architect and artist noted for his maritime paintings.

Early life

Benson was born into a prosperous family in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

. He was trained as an architect at the Académie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He was the brother of Frank Weston Benson. He married Sarah Bissell Whitman in 1893; they lived in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."

and then in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the i ...

Career

Upon his return from Paris, Benson was employed by McKim, Mead & White in New York City. He and Albert Leverett Brockway, a fellow architecture student from his Paris days, soon formed their own firm, Benson and Brockway. For six months between 1904 and 1905, Benson created "The Woozlebeasts," a comic strip written almost entirely in limericks, accompanied by his nonsensical drawings. These were influenced by Edward Lear's

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-k ...

, but took an even more fantastical angle. Some of these strips were collected in book form, ''The Woozlebeasts''. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1905. In 1922 at Benson and his wife traveled to England where he rented a studio and painted several pictures. He shipped them to New York's

Kennedy Galleries Kennedy Galleries is one of the oldest art galleries in the United States. It was founded by Hermann Wunderlich in 1874 under the name of Hermann Wunderlich & Co. When Wunderlich died in 1892, Edward G. Kennedy took over the gallery, whose name was ...

, and when they sold he became a full-time painter. Benson and his wife moved to a house they called "Willowbank" on the

Piscataqua River The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...

Kittery, Maine Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town i ...

. He is buried in the

Harmony Grove Cemetery Harmony Grove Cemetery is a rural cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. It was established in 1840 and is located at 30 Grove Street. The cemetery is approximately 35 acres in size and was designed by Francis Peabody and Alexander Wadsworth. ...

in Salem, Massachusetts. A retrospective John Benson exhibition was held in 1968 at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Sources

* ''John Prentiss Benson — American Marine Artist,'' 2008, Nicholas J. Baker * ''The Artistic Legacy of John Prentiss Benson.'' 2003, Nicholas J. Baker * '' John P. Benson. American Artist (1865-1947) An Affectionate Tribute,'' 1949, Charles Penrose

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, John Prentiss 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American comics artists 1865 births 1947 deaths Architects from Massachusetts American marine artists Burials at Harmony Grove Cemetery 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists