A painter of figurative and genre scenes as well as some landscapes (marines), Bridgman painted in France as well as New Orleans, Louisiana.

Charles Jennings Bridgman was the first son of three, born to Dr. Frederick Bridgman and Lovina Jennings in Tuskegee, Alabama on May 30, 1841. His father graduated from Harvard Medical College in 1830 and moved down to Macon, Georgia as a practicing physician.  He later moved to Tuskegee in 1840 where he was married in July of that year.   His father died in 1850 when Charles was only 9 years old. His mother left for the north in October 1860, just before the war broke out, with Charles, Frederick, and Edward.  His brother, Frederick Arthur Bridgman became also an artist.  His brother Edward became a clerk for his uncle Colonel Frank Bridgman, a paymaster in the Union army and later became a superintendent of the Crane’s paper mills in Dalton Massachusetts.

Charles exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association on 1866, and from 1871 to 1886; the National Academy of Design from 1872 to 1884; the Boston Art Club in 1881; and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1881 to 1885.

Charles died in Brooklyn, New York on February 12, 1895.

 
Sources:
Who Was Who in American Art
Additional information courtesy of Linda (Bridgman) Patterson, a descendent of the artist.