In 1813, he returned to Hamburg and settled there. On the recommendation of the jurist, Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer [de], he worked as a teacher at the "Patriotische Gesellschaft [de]. Later, he became a portrait artist; in oils as well as lithographs. In the mid-1820s, together with other local artists, he was part of a non-profit "academy" of the arts that offered two courses; one for young, beginning artists, and one for oil painting, that included working with nude models. His well-known students included Christian Morgenstern, Henri Lehmann, Louis Gurlitt, and Victor Emil Janssen [de].
During that same period, he came into possession of a large collection of paintings and drawings which he sold, over time, to support his other activities. In the late 1820s, he performed numerous commissions for religious art and church decorations.
In 1832, for reasons unknown, he moved to London. He continued to work as a portrait painter, but little is known of him after that point. A street in Hamburg's Barmbek district has been named after him. In 2019, his works were part of an exhibit, "Hamburger Schule – Das 19. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt", at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
Sources
Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer, "Siegfried Bendixen", in : Kieler Künstler – Kunstleben und Künstlereisen 1770–1870, Heide 2014, pp. 110–149 ISBN978-3-8042-1406-4
Nina Struckmeyer: "Bendixen, Siegfried Detlev", In: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (Eds.): Pariser Lehrjahre. Ein Lexikon zur Ausbildung deutscher Maler in der französischen Hauptstadt. Vol.1: "1793–1843", Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 20–22 ISBN978-3-11-029064-6 (Online)
Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer, Sehnsucht nach Arkadien: Schleswig-Holsteinische Künstler in Italien, Heide 2009, Siegfried Bendixen, pp. 44–48-49
Ralf Busch (Ed.): Hamburg Altstadt. Führer zu archäologischen Denkmälern in Deutschland. Vol.41. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN3-8062-1658-4