Biography
Constance Penstone was born in South Africa in 1864 or 65. She lived in Australia and the United States in the 1880s before returning to South Africa where she married a cartoonist named Charles Penstone. Together they created a weekly illustrated journal called The Owl. The Owl was popular in Cape Town and featured obscene, racist cartoons meant to denigrate South Africa’s Jewish population. Penstone was active in South African art circles in the early twentieth century, eventually giving up cartooning to focus on watercolors.