Russian and Ukrainian painter of Greek origin, genre painter, landscape painter, portraitist, teacher.
He was born into a poor large family of a Greek fisherman. His father, Konstantin Kostantidi Vasilketi, was from the Greek island of Santorino. According to family legends, the artist’s father was allegedly captured by pirates while sailing in the Black Sea, put ashore on some island, and later moved to Dofinovka. Here he married the daughter of a Greek fisherman, Fotina Filiologo. Vasilketi got his surname Kostandi in Russia from a slightly modified pronunciation of his patronymic – Kostantidi. Kiriak was the sixth child in the family. At the age of nine, he lost his father and in 1862 he got a job in Odessa in a grocery store, then worked in the Kurle wine cellar and in the Alazan pub. Even then, the boy was fond of drawing. One day, photographer Byullov saw his drawings and invited him to work as a retoucher in his studio, where Kiriak worked for two years.

In 1870, Kostandi entered the free drawing classes of the Odessa Society of Fine Arts drawing school. In 1873, he received a silver medal for five oil portraits, four still lifes and six pencil drawings submitted for the final exams. His works were among the best sent to the Academy of Arts, but Kostandi did not have the funds to enter the Academy. A lucky chance helped him enter the Academy.

Kostandi’s living conditions in St. Petersburg were difficult; due to the constant need for money, he had to earn extra money by giving private lessons. But he studied successfully at the Academy, receiving two small silver medals in 1876. From 1879 to 1881, Kiriak attended pedagogical courses at the Academy of Arts to train drawing teachers in secondary schools. In 1879, the student was awarded the Grand Silver Medal, and on May 16, 1881, another one “for artistic work in the life-style painting class.” The young man’s dream was to participate in an academic competition and receive a gold medal to obtain the title of class artist of a certain degree. The degree of the medal automatically assigned the artist the title of the same degree.

In the summer of 1881, during the summer holidays, Kiriak, along with his fellow students from the Academy Afanasyev, Dubovsky and Kudryavtsev, went to the village of Butyrki in the Oryol province to paint. At the end of 1881, Kiriak turned to the board of the Academy with a request to petition for him to accept Russian citizenship, and this request was granted. On October 22, 1882, the artist graduated from the Academy with the title of class artist of the third degree and remained to live and work in St. Petersburg. In 1884, Kostandi debuted at the 12th Traveling Exhibition with the painting “At the Sick Comrade’s”, which was positively assessed by many reviewers of the exhibition. Ilya Repin then advised P.M. Tretyakov to purchase it for his gallery, where it is located today.

On February 8, 1885, Kostandi began teaching at the Odessa Drawing School of the Fine Arts Society as a senior teacher. In 1899, the school was renamed the “Art School of the Fine Arts Society in Odessa” and entered into the administration of the Academy of Arts. High erudition, warmth and modesty made Kostandi the most popular and authoritative teacher of the drawing school. As historians write about him, “Kostandi combined the patience of a teacher, the intelligence of an educator and the talent of a painter.”

In 1889, the artist married Euphrosyne Kuzminichna Knyazeva (1863-1947). The following year, 1890, Kostandi painted a portrait of his wife, which was exhibited at the First Exhibition of TYURH (Association of South Russian Artists in Odessa). The artist painted his wife several more times, the first of them in 1885, when they met.

The artist’s strength was undermined by heart disease. At the beginning of 1920, the artist’s condition worsened significantly and doctors advised him not to overload himself with work and to rest at his dacha in the summer.

Kostandi spent his last summer at his dacha Bolshoy Fontana, but at the same time painted many sketches – dacha landscapes.

In the fall, Kostandi again began working at the school and the museum, but soon fell ill again and was sent to a sanatorium on French Boulevard. There the artist painted his last works – a landscape of a garden with a view of the sanatorium building and a self-portrait.

Despite the sanatorium treatment, on October 31, 1921, the artist died at the age of 69. Kostandi was buried at the Second City Cemetery.