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painter and professional photographer, was born in St Clement’s Dane parish, London, on 8 October 1836. He was only three when came to South Australia; his parents later sent him back to London for training at the Royal Academy Schools, a family legend being that his uncle carried his painting materials up the steps since he was too small to manage them himself. He also learnt photography in London. He was back home by 1853, when he accompanied his father on a visit to the Victorian goldfields where he is said to have both sketched and taken photographs of mining scenes. Two watercolours in the National Library, Eagle Hawk Gully, Bendigo (1853) and Mt. Alexander Gold Diggings (1853), attributed to Bentley by his daughter (who donated them in 1965), appear to be copies of prints by G.F. Angas , although perhaps Angas was the copyist. McCulloch states that Angas’s father commissioned Bentley to take photographs of South Australian views and therefore considers it likely that the common source of virtually identical views of the Mt Alexander (Castlemaine) diggings by Bentley, Angas and John Saddington Plush was a Bentley photograph.

William continued to live with his parents at Burra Burra, where his father worked for the copper mines. He was paid £5 for a watercolour of the Burra mine in May 1858 (National Trust SA). Another sketch of the mine done in June 1857 was illustrated in The Burra Mine: Reminiscences of its Rise and Fall, 1845-1877 (reproduced by Ian Auhl in 1975). After he married, Bentley worked professionally as a painter and photographer at Kooringa and in other parts of South Australia. His painting Kangarooing was lent by its owner, Mr Bruce, to the South Australian Society of Arts’ exhibition at Adelaide in January 1863. His wife, Louisa, died that year aged 26; on 11 January 1864 he married Elizabeth Bold of Burra. The two children of his first marriage predeceased their mother and only five of his and Elizabeth’s four sons and seven daughters survived infancy.

Bentley was taking photographs at the rival copper-mining town of Moonta in 1868-71 but finally returned to Redruth (the Burra mining town) and opened a shop, also used by him as a school and painting and photography studio, according to a daughter. As a painter he worked in oils, watercolours and chalk, his subjects being landscapes, townscapes, historical pictures and portraits. He was commissioned to paint the portraits of several of Burra’s mayors. Most of his surviving photographs are views of Burra taken at the turn of the century, including one of his own shop (c.1902). He remained at 'the Burra’ until he died in June 1910. He was buried in the Wesleyan section of the local cemetery.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011