John Bennett was trained in England. He seems to have played a crucial role there by introducing painted decoration on ceramics at the Doulton factory in the early 1870s. Although they admired his talent, his English colleagues found Bennett had a difficult personality, and his stay at the Doulton factory was brief. By 1876 he was in New York, bringing with him the concepts of the English Aesthetic Movement: muted colors and great naturalism in the depiction of birds and flowers.