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Henrietta Johnston

© Anne Douglas

"Were it not for the Assistance my wife gives me by drawing of Pictures. . . I shou'd not have been able to live." In 1709 the Rev. Gideon Johnston wrote these words to describe his early days as minister of St. Philip's Church in Charles Town (now called Charleston), South Carolina. Rev. Johnston was referring to his wife Henrietta, the first American artist to work in pastels and the first female professional artist in America.

The life of Henrietta Johnston is shadowy and elusive, pieced together through a few records, her husband's correspondence, and her surviving portraits. Although many references list Dublin as her birthplace, scholars preparing an exhibition of her drawings in 1991 determined that Henrietta deBeaulieu was born either in France or in England around 1674. Her parents were French Huguenots. A marriage application dated March 23, 1694 describes Henrietta as a maiden, about twenty, of the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Twenty four-year-old Robert Dering, her betrothed, was from an old English family with strong political ties to the Crown.

At some point after their 1694 marriage Henrietta and Robert moved to Ireland, where Henrietta gave birth to two daughters. It is believed that Robert died in Ireland sometime between 1698 and 1702. Henrietta remained in Dublin. On April 11, 1705 she married Gideon Johnston, a widowed vicar with two young sons.

Much about Henrietta's life is unclear or unknown, including who taught her to draw and why she worked exclusively in pastels. While living in Ireland she drew a number of portraits of the titled gentry, many of whom were friends or relatives of her first husband. Throughout her career she typically used 9 x 12-inch sheets of paper and simple wooden frames which she often signed and dated on the back. Her Irish portraits are detailed and sophisticated. Her sitters are shown from the waist up, with carefully drawn curls, eyelashes, buttons, and frills.

In the spring of 1708 the Bishop of London named Gideon Johnston Commissary in South Carolina. As such Gideon would represent the Bishop in the colony and supervise the local clergy. Gideon himself would be minister of St. Philip's in Charles Town. The long voyage to South Carolina, perilous under the best of circumstances, took a bizarre turn when Gideon, a sailor, and a merchant were marooned for 12 days on an island not far from Charles Town. This experience significantly undermined Gideon's already fragile health. His eventual arrival at St. Philip's was hardly auspicious, for he became embroiled in conflicts with his new congregation right away. "[I] never repented so much of anything," he wrote in September 1708, "my Sins only excepted, as my coming to this Place."

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