Henrietta Johnston

Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (c. 1674[1] – March 9, 1729) was a pastelist of uncertain origin active in the English colonies in North America from approximately 1708 until her death.

[3] Both the date and place of Johnston's birth are unknown; it has been suggested, and is generally accepted, that she was born in northwestern France, near the town of Rennes.

In 1705 she married again, this time to Anglican clergyman Gideon Johnston, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin then serving as the vicar at Castlemore.

[1] Two years later, he was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to serve as commissary of the Church of England in North and South Carolina and the Bahama Islands.

[2] The couple's time in the colonies was hard; Johnston was frequently writing the Society to request payment of his salary, which was often delayed,[1] and their lives were further hampered by illness, lack of supplies, and distance from family.

[1] A suggestion has been made that Johnston was related to the painter and dancing master William Dering, who migrated to Charleston from Williamsburg, Virginia in 1749, but this is not generally accepted.

[4] In pose and coloring, many of Johnston's portraits strongly resemble those of Sir Godfrey Kneller, which at the time were greatly in fashion in the United Kingdom and the colonies.

[1] Her pastels from Ireland are drawn in deep earth tones, while those from her time in South Carolina are generally lighter and smaller, due likely to the precious nature of her materials, which had to be imported.

[4] Nine portraits, each depicting members of the Southwell and Perceval families, were owned by American preservationist Jim Williams and displayed at his Mercer House in Savannah, Georgia.