Johnston, Henrietta

Henrietta Johnston, original name Henrietta Deering, (born before 1670, probably Ireland—buried March 7, 1729, Charles Towne, South Carolina [now Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.]), early American portrait artist who was quite possibly the earliest woman artist in America.

Henrietta Deering was married to the Reverend Gideon Johnston in Dublin in April 1705. Nothing is known of her early life. In 1707 she and her husband immigrated to America and settled in Charles Towne. Their life there was hard: the couple was beset by poverty and illness, and Johnston served as her husband’s secretary, kept the house, cared for her children, and found time to supplement their meagre income by creating portraits of the wealthy, powerful, and prominent. Apparently untrained, she employed natural talent to produce frank, unadorned portraits. They were small—generally 9 × 12 inches (23 × 30 cm)—and were done in pastels, a medium only then coming into widespread use. Some 40 portraits by her are known, most created between 1707 and 1720. She was forced to support herself after her husband’s death in 1716. A number of portraits made in New York as late as 1725 have been attributed to her. The place and date of her death are unknown, but she was buried in Charles Towne.