Joseph Hastings Bennett, painter and printmaker, was born in San Diego, California on March 27, 1889.

Bennett was raised and lived predominantly in the San Francisco Bay area. In the 1930s he was living in the town of Piedmont and eventually settled in Orinda. He was a student of Emile Albert Gruppe, Armin Carl Hansen, and Arthur Hill Gilbert. Bennett first produced etchings in 1932 and his work was in the First Graphic Arts Exhibition of The San Francisco Art Association held at the San Francisco Museum of Art. In 1937, he turned to oil painting and would become known for his coastal imagery, landscape and cowboy genre.

He was a member of and exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association, the Society of Western Artists, the Print Makers Society of California, the California Society of Etchers, the Walnut Creek Association of Artists, and the Carmel Art Association. His work was shown at the Paul Elder Gallery in San Francisco in 1933 and he was included in the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Joseph Hastings Bennett died in Orinda, California on September 11, 1969.