Artist and writer, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright 'began writing for the London Magazine under the pseudonyms of Janus Weathercock, Egomet Bonmot and Cornelius Van Vinkbooms. His articles soon won him entrée to literary circles where he became friendly with Lamb, Hazlitt, Hood, de Quincey, Charles Dickens and others. At 26 he began exhibiting his paintings at the Royal Academy where he came strongly under the influence of Henry Fuseli. The work Wainewright produced in England was so similar to that of Fuseli that it was sometimes confused with that of the master.'
Arrested on 9 June 1837 he was 'charged with having attempted to defraud the
Bank of England with a forged power of attorney. Although the governor
of Newgate gaol on behalf of the Bank of England had persuaded him, with
a promise of merely nominal punishment, to plead guilty, he was
sentenced to transportation for life. In his own words, he was "forthwith hurried, stunned with such ruthless perfidy, to the Hulks at
Portsmouth, and then, in five days, aboard the Susan, a convict transport bound for Van Diemen's Land". He arrived at Hobart Town on 21 November.'
'Numerous writers have suggested that Wainewright poisoned his uncle, his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law but, however suspicious the circumstances, there is no known evidence to show that any of the three died from other than natural causes...He was of good family, accepted socially, well educated, talented and an accomplished artist, but something of an enigma. The portraits he painted during his ten years in Hobart Town show little imitation of Fuseli's extravagance, and some forty of these known to exist are works of art in their own right, full of sensitivity and perception. By leaving him with happiness only when he was painting, the harsh conditions and mental anguish that he suffered may also have stimulated his originality.'
(Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Online)
