Wainewright, Thomas (Griffiths) (1794–1847)

British-born Australian artist, considered one of the finest early Australian portraitists. His subjects were often the wives of colonial officials living in Australia, after he was sent to Van Diemen's Land (modern Tasmania), Britain's most brutal penal colony, having been convicted of fraud.

He was orphaned and brought up by an uncle in London. He became a painter and a journalist. Later he was suspected of poisoning an uncle for his property, as well as his mother-in-law, and sister-in-law, although he was never charged. After living in Paris for six years, he returned to England and was convicted of forging the signatures of the trustees of his grandfather's will.

Wainewright was vilified by contemporaries before and after his death, and even his defenders such as Oscar Wilde assumed he was guilty of murder. He was the basis for Dickens's murder story ‘Hunted Down’ (1859).