Lester W. Bentley (1908 - 1972)

Born in Two Rivers, on the edge of Lake Michigan, Lester Bentley decided he wanted to be an artist at the age of seven; his first exhibit was held in the neighboring city of Manitowoc when he was thirteen.

Working in a commercial art studio until he received a four-year, scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago,  he studied under Karl Buehr, Louis Ritman, and Boris Anisfeld from 1930-1934.  During the summers of 1933-1934 he taught art at Two Rivers Vocational School and completed six murals for Sacred Heart Church. In 1935 he worked for the WPA’s Federal Arts Project and in 1942 painted three small murals for the new De Pere (WI) Post Office.

During World War II, Chief Petty Officer Bentley produced recruitment posters of which SPARS–depicting women in U.S. Coast Guard attire–is his most famous. He also painted portraits of military officers until his discharge in 1946.  After the war he stayed in White Plains, New York where he met and married Constance Lolien. They eventually moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, building a home and a studio in 1953 while still maintaining a summer studio in Two Rivers.

Specializing in portraiture, Bently worked for Portraits Incorporated and also did private commissions.  Among his subjects were: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Cardinal Mooney, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William O. Douglas, Wisconsin Governors Oscar Rennebohm, Warren Knowels, Fred Zimmerman and Phillip La Follette, and University of Wisconsin president Conrad Elvehjem.  Bentley was also an accomplished lithographer and an art teacher.

Bentley’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of Columbia University; the Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI; Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, WI; Elvehjem Museum of Art (now the Chazen), University of Wisconsin – Madison; and the West Bend Art Museum (now theMuseum of Wisconsin Art),  West Bend, WI.