Henrietta Dering Johnston

Henrietta Dering Johnston (1674-1729) was the first professional artist in the colonies and the first pastel artist in America. Scholars are unsure of her place of birth. It is believed that when she was born her parents, who were Huguenots, were living in northern France.

When she was 13 years old, her parents moved the family to London. In 1694 Henrietta married Robert Dering and they relocated to Ireland. Her husband died in 1702, leaving her to support herself and their two daughters. Three years after her first husband’s death, Henrietta married the Rev. Gideon Johnston, vicar at Castlemore.

In 1708 they moved to Charleston, S.C. where the Rev. Johnston had accepted an appointment as bishop commissary and rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. Little is known about how and when Henrietta began to create art, but she was doing pastel work to earn money, as was reported in her husband’s correspondence. The money that she earned from her pastels of influential people was extremely important to the family’s survival, as her husband did not receive sufficient and consistent compensation from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.