Bartlett studied metallurgy and worked in that field for several years. At age 23, he enrolled in the
Royal Academy in London, where he studied painting and etching. After three years of study in London, he entered the private studio school
Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied under
Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911) and
Gustave Boulanger (1824–1888). In 1889, he returned to England and married Emily Tate, but shortly thereafter, his wife and infant son died in childbirth. Bartlett then traveled to Europe, spending several productive years in the
Netherlands,
Brittany and Venice with his friend and fellow artist
Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956). Brangwyn is believed to have introduced Bartlett to
Japanese prints. Bartlett produced some of his most important early works on the Continent, especially studies of peasants painted in broad areas of colour. He was invited to join the
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in France in 1897. In 1898, he returned to England and married Catherine "Kate" Main. Bartlett returned to the Continent with his second wife, and in 1908, he helped found the Société de la Peinture a l'Eau in Paris. Several Continental museums acquired his paintings at the Paris exhibitions of the Société de la Peinture a l'Eau. Bartlett made several trips to Brittany and the Netherlands with the Dutch painter
Nico Wilhelm Jungmann (1872–1935), which provided the former with material for future paintings of peasants, whose dignity derived from the simple placement of shapes. In 1928, Bartlett helped to found the
Honolulu Printmakers along with local artists
Alexander Samuel MacLeod,
John Melville Kelly, and
Huc-Mazelet Luquiens. Charles Bartlett died in Hawaii at the age of 79 on 16 April 1940. ==Collections and exhibitions==