John Prentiss Benson

Born: February 8, 1865, Salem, Massachusetts

Died: November 16, 1947, Kittery, Maine

Burial Location: Woodbine Path, Lot 913, Grave 11

John Prentiss Benson was a member of Salem’s well known Benson family who lived at 47 Washington Square. Educated in Salem’s schools, he then went on to Ecole Julian and Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, following in the footsteps of his older brother Frank Weston Benson. tch# His father encouraged him strongly to choose a different profession than art. It is said that John was told that one artist (his brother Frank) in the family was enough. John Benson became an architect. On his return from Paris he was hired by the firm McKim, Mead and White. After a few months there, he founded his own firm (Benson and Brockway) in partnership with Paris school friend Albert Brockway.

In 1893, he married Sarah Bissell Whitman. The couple had four children; the family lived in Plainfield, New Jersey and then in Flushing, New York. In 1904-1905, John Benson published a comic strip, called “The Woozlebeasts”. This became a book, published by Moffat,Yard and Company. It consisted of limericks, accompanied by Benson’s comical drawings.

In 1921, on his 56^th birthday, Prentiss Benson received a telegram from his brother Frank. It read: “John, if you are going to paint, PAINT! “ John had continued to paint in his spare time, mostly nautical themes. Perhaps inspired or motivated by his brother’s message, John and Sarah went to England. There he rented a studio and began to paint. He sent seven or eight paintings to the Kennedy Galleries in New York City. When six of these were sold, he became a full time painter, moving to Kittery, where he bought a house called Willowbank. His studio was conveniently located across the street. He kept careful records, and painted more than 500 canvasses during his years in Kittery. Visitors purchased many of his works on the spot. He also had exhibits in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. He painted right up to the time of his death. A memorial exhibition of his work was held in 1948 by the Guild of Boston Artists and in 1968 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Peabody Museum in Salem.

‍Sources Consulted:

• About John Benson: Crockergraphics Inc. 2022
• Nonsenselit.org 2022 John Prentiss Benson
• Wikipedia: Wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Prentiss_Benson&oldid=1087835676