Portrait

Description

Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston, likely born in France, emigrated to England with her family as a Huguenot refugee. She became the first recorded professional female portraitist in the American colonies. This intimate posthumous pastel portrait—inscribed with initials for Johnston and her late husband, Robert Dering—memorializes their daughter Helena, who died young in Dublin. As a rare woman artist in early modern Atlantic history, this object traces Johnston’s diasporic path from France to Ireland, England, and Charleston.