Design and Art Australia Online

portrait and landscape painter and lithographer, was born in Paris. He was tried and found guilty of 'larceny in dwelling house’ at the Old Bailey, London on 23 October 1822, although he later stated that his offence was 'passing forged notes’. Whichever was the case, it is certain that he was transported for life to New South Wales aboard the Oceania in 1823 and upon arrival was assigned to Thomas Fitzherbert Hawkins of Bathurst. Less than two years later, he was granted an absolute pardon by Governor Brisbane at the specific request of the visiting French navigator Hyacinthe de Bougainville, who was told by Costantini, whom he met at the Emu Plains convict farm, that his crime had been to force his attentions on a lady in London with 'too impetuous a passion’. He left with the French expedition as ship’s surgeon.

On 21 March 1827, back in London, Costantini was tried and found guilty at the Exeter Assizes of having stolen two £5 notes from Captain Mitchell. On this occasion he received the extraordinarily light sentence of seven years’ transportation. He landed at Hobart Town aboard the Layton in October 1827, his conduct on board ship having been described as 'Disposed to be very troublesome’. His behaviour in Van Diemen’s Land continued to be less than exemplary and in December he was transported aboard the Prince Leopold to the secondary penal station at Macquarie Harbour, where he was employed as a dispenser of medicines.

Here he apparently displayed some talent as a draughtsman. On 12 January 1828 Major Butler, the commandant, wrote in a letter to the colonial secretary: 'C.H. Theodore Constantini [sic], a French Man, is a Draughtsman of which he has given me some proofs in Sketches taken at the Settlement. I should wish to employ him for some time in this Manner in order to afford His Excellency an idea of this Station and its Localities’. Works from this period include the pen-and-ink Macquarie Harbour and View of the Gates and Residence of the Pilot at Macquarie Harbour from the Bar (both Petherick Collection NLA), two large watercolours of the settlement (TMAG) and a smaller watercolour view (ALMFA).

Costantini was employed as assistant surgeon and hospital superintendent at Port Arthur from December 1831 until September 1833. A detailed panorama of Port Arthur (TMAG) is attributed to him. Although he received fifty lashes for insubordination and disrespectful conduct at Port Arthur, he nevertheless gained his free certificate on 14 March 1834, having served his seven-year sentence, the end of which was spent at Oatlands as a clerk. Then he worked as medical assistant to Dr John Maule Hudspeth at Oatlands until his supervisor became mentally ill and was removed to New Norcia, at which stage Costantini briefly became unofficial surgeon to the settlement.

As an artist, Costantini is best known for his portraits. In September 1837 his lithographic portrait of William Buckley, the English convict known both for his immense height and his thirty-year sojourn among the Port Phillip Aborigines, was published in the Cornwall Chronicle , when he seems to have been living in Launceston. On 24 February 1838, he advertised his ability 'to paint portraits in the most correct style, also views, and sketches of gentlemen’s farms &c.’ in the Launceston Cornwall Chronicle .

Four watercolours of members of the Martin family of New Norfolk were done in the 1840s (Federation Museum, Corowa), while another Martin family portrait depicting Mary Ann Martin and her three eldest sons was painted at Hobart Town in 1846. Sisters Anne and Caroline Harrison, who had married brothers William and George Yeoland, had their portraits painted in the summer of 1846 when they were holidaying in norther VDL, near Hadspen. Caroline liked her portrait by 'an Italian man’, but Anne didn’t approve of hers. The watercolours remained in the Yeoland family until offered for sale by Nevin Hurst’s Masterpiece Gallery in September 2002 (cats 4-5, $25,000 the pair). William Lee, a farmer near Cressy, had his portrait painted on 20 December 1847 (TMAG). A miniature of Anne Coverdale (ALMFA, 1849), a portrait of the Greig brothers (p.c.) and probably three portraits of unidentified sitters (Narryna) also belong to the 1840s.

Most of Costantini’s surviving portraits from the 1850s are more sophisticated in style. Portraits of Sorell families done in the mid-1850s include George and Jemima Billet and their seven children (p.c.). An unconfirmed reference in the Wayn Index (AOT) says he was still painting in the 1860s, but no examples are known. His latest extant paintings, a design for an Australian coat of arms (Crowther Library) and an elaborate watercolour and pen-and-ink trompe-l’oeil painted in Hobart (p.c.), are dated 1857.

Most known works are watercolour portraits and landscapes. The majority of the portraits, like Portrait of Racing Man (1855, ALMFA), show meticulously detailed, slightly wooden figures set against landscape backgrounds with very low horizon lines. Alternatively, works set indoors, like The Newitt Children (1855, ALMFA), simply show figures posed on strips of floral carpet. His domestic landscapes include Windsor Park (1849, ALMFA) and two landscapes, Residence of Mr Ky Murray, Evandale (1852, ALMFA), a gentleman’s substantial residence (originally known as 'Prosperous House’) set behind formal gardens, and an Evandale cottage used as the Police Office (ALMFA), both presumably commissioned by Deputy Police Officer Kennedy Murray.

In 1998 Heather Curnow recorded about sixty paintings by Costantini, three-quarters of which are in Tasmania. The naive quality of most suggests a lack of formal training in the fine arts, although his three trompe-l’oeil watercolours with overlapping playing cards, banknotes, ships, views and figures (BFAG, AGSA, p.c.) are quite technically competent and suggest some trade experience. They may also contain further clues to a life that remains elusive.

Writers:

Stilwell, G. T.

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

1989