Alexander von Bensa studied in 1838/39 at the landscape school of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Franz Steinfeld and Thomas Ender. His first exhibition took place in 1841 as part of the Academy exhibition. Later exhibitions followed in the Künstlerhaus and the Austrian Kunstverein in Vienna.

Under the influence of Anton von Pettenkofen, von Bensa turned to the subject of battle painting and the depiction of scenes from the lives of Hungarian people. After an accident in the winter of 1889 he was paralyzed in his last years. Works by the artist can be found among others in the Albertina in Vienna.