portraitist, illustrator, draughtsman, lithographer and singer, was born in Cologne, Germany. He spent several years in Paris where, according to Dr John Lhotsky , he was 'occupied by the French Government in engraving some of the edifices’. He moved to London in 1827. In February 1829 he was charged with stealing a reticule 'containing a handkerchief, a smelling bottle, an opera-glass, and two opera tickets’ from Lady Laura Meyrick as she was leaving the Royal Opera House and with being in possession of other articles believed stolen. The Times called him 'a young foreigner, dressed in a most fashionable style’, and he described himself to the court as 'a German … [who] taught music, painting, drawing, and languages in families of the first distinction, and also architecture … he had been a pupil at the Academy at Paris for eight years’. Despite his protestations that the 'handkerchiefs and Opera-glasses produced were presents made to him by ladies who had been his pupils’, Rodius was found guilty and sentenced to seven years’ transportation.

He came to Sydney on board the Sarah in December 1829 and was assigned to the Department of Public Works as 'an artist and architect’, being engaged as a draughtsman by the colonial architect to draw up plans of existing and projected buildings and to instruct civil and military officers in the art of drawing and perspective; William Romaine Govett is thought to have been one of his pupils. Rodius also taught drawing privately to the children of prominent Sydney citizens such as those of Chief Justice Forbes, James Laidley and John Manning. He received a ticket of exemption from government service in June 1832; it required him to remain in the Sydney district but allowed him to practise professionally as an artist. He gained his ticket of leave in February 1834 and his certificate of freedom in July 1841.

Rodius not only practised the visual arts at this time, he was a respected musical performer as well. His 'soft rich voice’ was said to have given 'universal delight’ with his rendition of a song by Weber at a concert held at the Royal Hotel on 31 August 1836. The following month, billed as 'an Amateur’ (a common designation for a gentleman) Rodius was a soloist in a performance of the Messiah in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral; on this occasion, too, he was particularly commended for his 'most melodious tenor voice’.

In 1831 Rodius began issuing lithographic portraits of Aboriginal 'chiefs’ and their wives, completing the series in 1834. These portraits have a penetrating intensity which arises out of the artist’s wish to portray the natives exactly as they appeared – somewhat wretched after living side by side with white colonists. The Sydney Herald remarked on 'the extraordinary fidelity with which the characteristic countenances of these sable children of nature are delineated’, and added: 'It is the intention of the Artist to submit to the Public, a series of lithographic copies of the work, which he proposes to publish by subscription, at such charges as will place these interesting copies within the reach of all classes’. Rodius issued a second series of Aboriginal portraits in 1840.

Examples include Goosberry, One-Eyed Poll, Wife of King Bongarry 1844, crayon and wash, (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, illustrated in the Dictionary of Australian Artists, 1991, p 680). He drew similar portraits of prominent white settlers. But he also did a few cartoons, not so dissimilar in style, e.g. (after Augustus Earle) Uncle’s Intended: Scene in the Streets of Sydney , litho c.1830s. Another version without the caption is titled in ink Native Blacks, New S. Wales (both in the Mitchell Library).

In 1832 he sent a large view of Port Jackson taken from Bunker’s Hill to England where it was engraved by Ackermann & Co. of the Strand, London. The ensuing coloured aquatint (copies Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW; Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW) was commended by the Australian : 'This view surpasses in correctness of external objects and precision of drawing, anything we have yet seen of this kind in the colony’. Rodius’s pencil and watercolour views of Sydney are smoothly proficient, according to topographic conventions, and reaffirm his early training as a draughtsman. It was his 'crayon’ portraits, however, which were particularly acclaimed by contemporary critics. The Sydney Morning Herald called him a 'professed painter of heads’ and wondered why he exhibited 'nothing but landscapes’ at the first exhibition of the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia in 1847. (He only showed two: a view of a church at Cologne and Sketch from Mitchell’s Pass – View of Emu Plains .) His portrait of the visiting musician Monsieur Gautrot , his sole exhibit in the second exhibition in 1849, was described by the same newspaper as 'a free, light, loose sketch, full of artistical talent, and a very striking likeness’. At the 1857 Fine Art Exhibition at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts he showed one of his many portraits of Doctor Leichhardt , the same or similar to that described as 'excellent’ by the Herald in 1847.

Rodius’s sketches of Leichhardt and other public figures, such as Henry Parkes (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW) and William Foster: A Barrister at Law (National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT), are characterised by their swift grasp of character, assured handling and economy of line and informality. He issued many of these as lithographs, 'in order that the public may have a copy of one whose name and fame are so familiar to the colonists’. It seems, however, that he felt this enterprise was threatened by the arrival of photography, as he advertised in 1855 that he guaranteed 'a correct likeness…at the same expense as a Daguerreotype or Photograph…and avoiding the stiffness which detracts so much from correct expression in the latter’.

Rodius supplemented his income by teaching drawing at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts throughout 1849 but at the end of the year the class sub-committee reported that the number of students had dropped and the survivors were expressing 'much dissatisfaction’. Although Rodius had been complaining about teaching conditions throughout the year, the blame was laid solidly on the 'absence of anything like a system of teaching on the part of the Master’, who was accused of concentrating on individual rather than group teaching. It was recommended that his class be disbanded and replaced with one 'for the study of Geometrical Architectural drawing’ under a different master. Once applications had been received from Messrs Janssen , Tulloch , Goyder and Smith , Rodius was informed that his services were no longer required. He went to Melbourne.

The following May (in his absence) his lithographic portrait of George Robert Nichols was issued at Sydney, while his continuing residence in Melbourne was reported in both April and December 1850. In June 1851 he announced in the Sydney Morning Herald : 'Mr Charles Rodius having returned from Melbourne, begs to offer his services to any lovers of Art desirous of obtaining correct Portraits in his style of French Crayon. Mr. Rodius’ stay in Sydney will be but for a short period’. He nevertheless remained in New South Wales. In 1854 he arranged for a Sydney bookseller to display a portrait in his window with an attached note stating that the subject could collect it when he paid the outstanding balance of 34s, the story being retailed in the Herald under the heading 'Novel Exhibition’.

When Rodius’s young wife Harriet died in 1838 she was buried in the old Sandhills Cemetery in Devonshire Street, Sydney. Rodius himself carved her headstone: 'Sacred to the memory of Harriet Rodius, who died on 14 December, 1838, aged eighteen years. After a short illness of four days. This inscription is sculptured by her afflicted husband; as a last tribute his affection can offer to her memory.’ Shortly afterwards, in 1839, Rodius suffered 'a paralytic attack’ but fortunately recovered. In 1856, however, the People’s Advocate reported that he was 'afflicted with paralysis which utterly incapacitates him from following his profession’. He died in the Liverpool Hospital (for paupers) on 8 April 1860.

Writers:

Hackforth-Jones, Jocelyn Note: Dictionary of Australian Artists biography
Callaway, Anita Note: Dictionary of Australian Artists biography
Kerr, Joan Note: additional information "Examples include Goosberry... New S. Wales (both in the Mitchell Library)."

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011