Henrietta Johnston

en:Henrietta Johnston

• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Gibbes Museum of Art
• Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
• Greenville County Museum of Art

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Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (ca. 1674 in Nordwest-Frankreich; † 9. März 1729 in Charleston) war eine Malerin unbekannter Herkunft, die von ca. 1708 bis zum ihrem Tode in den Dreizehn Kolonien aktiv war. Sie ist sowohl die früheste überlieferte weibliche Künstlerin als auch die erste bekannte Pastellmalerin, die in den englischen Kolonien arbeitete, und ist die erste bekannte Porträtistin im Gebiet der späteren Südstaaten.

Leben

Henriette Charlotte Chastaigner (Mrs. Nathaniel Broughton), Pastell auf Papier, 1711, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

Anna Cuyler (Mrs. Anthony) Van Schaick, Pastell auf Papier, ca. 1725, New York State Museum, Albany, NY

Sowohl das Datum als auch der Ort von Johnstons Geburt sind unbekannt; eine Geburt in den 1670er Jahren im Nordwesten Frankreichs, in der Nähe der Stadt Rennes wird argumentiert. Ihre Eltern, beide französische Hugenotten, waren Francis (möglicherweise Cézar) und Suzanna de Beaulieu. Die Familie wanderte entweder 1685 oder 1687 nach London aus. 1694 heiratete Henrietta Robert (möglicherweise William) Dering, den fünften Sohn von Sir Edward Dering, 2. Baronet, und dessen Frau Mary. Sie und ihr Mann zogen dann nach Irland. Während dieser Zeit begann Johnston, Pastelle zu malen. Ihre frühesten Porträts zeigen eine Reihe von einflussreichen Personen, mit denen sie durch Heirat verwandt war; darunter waren John Perceval, 1. Earl of Egmont, und einer der Earls of Barrymore. Ihr frühestes erhaltenes Pastell stammt aus dem Jahr 1704.

Dering starb um 1704 und ließ Johnston als Witwe mit zwei Töchtern zurück. 1705 heiratete sie erneut, diesmal den anglikanischen Geistlichen Gideon Johnston, einen Absolventen des Trinity College Dublin, der damals als Vikar in Castlemore diente. Zwei Jahre später wurde er von der Gesellschaft für die Verbreitung des Evangeliums in der Fremde zum Kommissar der Kirche von England in Nord- und Südkarolina und auf den Bahama-Inseln ernannt. Er sollte auch als Rektor der St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Charleston dienen.[4] Die Zeit des Ehepaars in den Kolonien war hart; Johnston schrieb häufig an die Gesellschaft, um die Zahlung seines Gehalts zu erbitten, die sich oft verzögerte,[1] und ihr Leben wurde durch Krankheit, Mangel an Vorräten und die Entfernung von der Familie weiter erschwert. In einem seiner Briefe an seinen Gönner Gilbert Burnet aus dem Jahr 1709 erwähnt Johnston, dass "ich nicht leben könnte, wenn meine Frau mir nicht durch das Zeichnen von Bildern helfen würde (was an einem Ort, der so schlecht bevölkert ist, nur eine kurze Zeit dauern kann)", was darauf hindeutet, dass Henrietta wieder mit dem Zeichnen begonnen hatte, um das Einkommen des Paares aufzubessern. Ein anderer Brief, der ein Jahr später datiert ist, verrät, dass ihr das Zeichenmaterial ausgegangen war und sie "eine lange und ermüdende Krankheit" erlitt.[4] Johnston reiste einmal nach England zurück, 1711-1712; auch ihr Mann kehrte einmal dorthin zurück, von 1713 bis 1715. Er starb 1716 bei einem Bootsunfall, nicht lange nach seiner Rückkehr nach Charleston.[4]

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. 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. He was also to serve as rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Charleston. 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, and their lives were further hampered by illness, lack of supplies, and distance from family. In one of his letters to his patron Gilbert Burnet, written in 1709, Johnston mentions that "were it not for the assistance my wife gives by drawing of Pictures (which can last but a little time in a place so ill peopled) I should not be able to live", indicating that Henrietta had again taken up her drawing to augment the couple's income. Another letter, dated a year later, reveals that she had run out of drawing materials and suffered "a long and tedious Sickness". Johnston made one return trip to England, in 1711–1712; her husband, too, returned there once, from 1713 to 1715. He died in a boating accident in 1716, not long after returning to Charleston.

Little is known of Johnston's later life in the colonies. She is known to have traveled at some point to New York City, as four portraits dated 1725 exist depicting members of a family from that city. She returned to Charleston at some time before her death in 1729.

Johnston and her second husband are buried together in the cemetery of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston. One of her daughters by her first marriage, Mary Dering, later became lady-in-waiting to the daughters of George II.

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.

Style

It is unknown whether or not Johnston studied painting and drawing; however, given the sophistication of her work, it is likely that she did indeed receive some form of training. Similarities between her pastels and the works of Irish artist Edmund Ashfield and of Edward Luttrell indicate that she may have studied with them at some point.

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. 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. The Irish works, which show the most attention to detail of all her works, depict sitters at three-quarter length, as do the earliest of her Carolina pastels. Johnston's American female subjects are usually shown wearing chemises, while the male subjects are drawn mostly in street clothes; some of the latter are depicted wearing armor. Each subject is shown sitting erect, with the head frequently turned at a slight angle from the body and towards the viewer. The faces are typically dominated by large oval eyes. Works dating to after her second husband's death are less finished; details of clothing are less well-defined and colors are less saturated, suggesting either that the artist was running out of materials or that she was working at greater speed to complete commissions.

Johnston usually signed her portraits on their wooden backing, noting her name, the location of completion, and the date of completion in order. A typical signature is the inscription on the reverse of her portrait of Philip Perceval: Henrietta Dering Fecit / Dublin Anno 1704. Johnston was almost exclusively a portraitist; the only landscapes attributed to her hand are the backgrounds of a pair of children's portraits from New York, which are also her only known portraits of children.

About forty portraits by Johnston are known to survive; many have preserved their original frames and backboards, on which her signature may be found. These mostly depict members of her social circle and, later, of her husband's Charleston congregation, such as Colonel William Rhett. Many of her South Carolina portraits depict members of Huguenot families that had settled in the New World, including the Prioleaus, Bacots (including Pierre Bacot and his first wife Marianne Fleur Du Gue) and duBoses (including Judith DuBose). Today, a number of her works are held by the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, which has developed an interactive online exhibition dedicated to her work; other pieces may be seen in the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Greenville County Museum of Art. Johnston is not known to have worked in oils, but one of her portraits was copied at some point by Jeremiah Theus.

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. Seven are inscribed "Dublin, Ireland" and are dated from 1704 to 1705. They were put up for sale by Sotheby's in 2000, seven with their original frames. Williams protected them from the light in an upstairs dressing room where the shutters were kept closed.

Einzelnachweise

{{SORTIERUNG:Johnson, Henrietta}}
[[Category:1670s births]]
[[Category:1729 deaths]]
[[Category:Colonial American women]]
[[Category:American women painters]]
[[Category:People of pre-statehood South Carolina]]
[[Category:South Carolina colonial people]]
[[Category:Painters from South Carolina]]
[[Category:Artists from Charleston, South Carolina]]
[[Category:Pastel artists]]
[[Category:American portrait painters]]
[[Category:18th-century Anglicans]]
[[Category:18th-century American painters]]
[[Category:18th-century women artists]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Michael's Churchyard (Charleston)]]
[[Category:18th-century American women artists]]