Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 Online edition JOHNSTON, Mrs Gideon, Mrs of St Martin-in-the-Fields when a licence was wrote “I have Clubb’d with Mr Shute in sending granted by the Faculty Office for her to marry a small present of Crayons to Mrs Johnston in Robert Dering, née Henrietta de Robert Dering, a younger son of Sir Edward acknowledgement of the Rice &c. which was lost Beaulieu Dering, at Holy Trinity Church, Knightsbridge, wth poor Capt. Cole.” While her Irish pastels France [Rennes?] c.1674 – Charleston 9.III.1729 London (the marriage took place the same day). used deep earth tones, the American works were Henriette de Beaulieu (given as Branlieu in Three years later, when their elder daughter lighter and smaller, since her materials had to be Dublin 1987) was no doubt the daughter of Helena was born, they were living in Salisbury imported. French Huguenots émigrés who arrived in (St Thomas’s, 6.II.1697). They then settled in In April 1711 Henrietta returned to London London in the 1680s. But despite extensive Ireland. A second daughter, Mary, was born, at alone, in order to ask the Society for additional research on this artist, biographical uncertainties an unknown location and date (c.1700). funds for her husband’s mission. She returned to remain. It seems most likely that she belonged to Henrietta seems to have taken up art after the Charleston, succesful, nearly a year later. In the the de Beaulieu family from Rennes, and was the death of her first husband (recorded at St autumn of 1713 Gideon Johnston returned to daughter (some sources suggest sister, but this is Andrew’s, Dublin, 24.I.1703). Her works London (with at least one of his sons but not his chronologically improbable) of the pastor César (including the series of nine portraits of the wife) where he remained for some 18 months, de Beaulieu, Sieur de Néraunay, écuyer who was Perceval family, her relatives through Lady accompanying a young “prince” of the tribe of married to Suzanne Dupré by 1674. The Perceval, née Catherine Dering) show the rather the South Carolina tribe of the Yamassees who registers for the protestant church of St Thurian stiff poses typical of late seventeenth century was to be educated and converted. Soon after his in Quintin (where César was minister) survive English portraiture. The subjects’ large eyes return, in 1716, Johnston was drowned in only for the years 1674–80: they show that a directed at the viewer and brightly lit from the Charleston harbour. Apart from a trip to New daughter Suzanne was baptised 19.III.1675 and a left. Nothing is known for certain about her York, where in 1725 she made four portraits of son Henri on 18.IV.1676 (the date is given training, although technically she probably owes the Moore family, Henrietta remained in incorrectly in Haag, La France protestante, 1879, II, most to Luttrell, including the use of a fixative Charleston until her death four years later. p. 30); twins Ester and Julienne died days after which has left a watermark. It has also been Henrietta’s daughter Mary Dering their birth on 26.IV.1780. The records confirm suggested that she may have been taught by the corresponded with her friend Teresa Blount that the family enjoyed the support of princesse miniaturist Simon Digby, Bishop of Elphin (q.v.); from America, noting “amongst pritty things Henriette de La Tour d’Auvergne, marquise de he was among the Irish clergy who there is Alegators & rattle Snakes enough” La Moussaye and daughter of the duc de recommended Johnston for the post of (letters 1718–19: Mapledurham MSS, cited Bouillon who had played an important role in commissary in 1707 (F. Dalcho, An historical Rumbold 1989, p. 118). On her return to the wars of religion. It seems plausible that a first account of the Protestant episcopal church in south England she became Dresser Extraordinary to child, baptised before the records start, would Caroline, Charleston, 1820, p. 77). the Princess Royal in 1730 and was living, have been named after the princesse. A second The burial register for St Andrew’s, Dublin unmarried, in St James’s Palace when she made son, François-Charles, was born after the records for 14.IV.1704 records the death of her daughter her will (23.IV.1746, proved 13.VI.1747) in which end in 1680 (he later entered the Prussian Helena. A posthumous portrait of her (in an certain family relationships are explained: service, and died in Gdansk in 1725). A warrant Irish frame) is perhaps the most striking of the notably, her aunt, née Ann de Beaulieu for César’s arrest for proselytising was issued in artist’s pastels. Her parents’ initials appear on the (presumably born after the denization of 1687), 1682, and the family emigrated to England pedestal she leans upon, while a funeral was married to a Mr Bullock and living in where César was endenized 15.XII.1682. A third hatchment, impaling two coats of arms, appears Gloucester (she may have died in 1753, but is son, John Henry, was born 9.VI.1683 and above her (there are signs of a second lozenge otherwise untraced). Other bequests were to Mrs baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields. César below, presumably an erasure). Those of the Edward Le Grand, a daughter of Sir Robert became minister of the French church in Dering family are left, while on the right are Southwell and her daughter Helena (and a sum Ipswich. On 5.V.1684 he was appointed chaplain arms similar to a coat normally quartered with to a surgeon to remove her head before burial). to the Royal Household. He was granted an those of Dering, but the correspondence is not A series of codicils indicate that she was annuity by Archbishop Sancroft, but he did not exact (nor are they those of any known French comfortably off and moved in aristocratic circles. live long enough to enjoy it (Gwynn 2015, p de Beaulieu family: the Rennes family, Beaulieu To “the Countess of Egmont daughter to Sir 215): he was buried at St Margaret’s, de la Rouzays, should be d’azur, au lion d’argent, Philipp Parker” she left “two venus’s done in Westminster in 16.I.1685. Luke de Beaulieu accompagné de neuf besants d’or). Creons”; to “Miss Dering daughter of Daniel (c.1644–1723), said to have been César’s brother On 11.IV.1705, at St Andrew’s, Dublin (her Dering Esquire my Grandfather St Edward (their father was Paul de Beaulieu), arrived in name appears as Deering in the register) she Dearings Picture.” The artists are not identified: England in 1667 (but was not endenized until married the Rev. Gideon Johnston (1668–1716), Sir Edward died in 1684, and cannot have been 12.VI.1682) and became chaplain to Judge vicar of Castlemore. They went to London in known to Henrietta; Hoare’s “Two Venus’s” was Jeffreys, rector of Whitworth and prebendary of search of more intresting preferment; after some reported by Walpole at Stourhead, and does not Gloucester. His sister Frances is commemorated delay he was selected by the Society for the seem a likely subject for Henrietta. It does not in the monument in Gloucester Cathedral, 1708. Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to appear that Mary returned to England with any The bookseller Jean de Beaulieu of St Martin’s act as the Bishop of London’s Commissary in of her mother’s pastels. A bequest of “the largest Lane; endenized 16.XII.1687, may have been a South Carolina, 26.XI.1707. Two stepsons, James Madona for those that I have” to Sarah Stanley, relative (the posthumous sale of his library, 1702, and Robert (who later took on the name Sir Hans Sloane’s daughter, suggests a weakening included prints after Le Brun and Poussin; but Ketelbey) were educated in England. Mrs of the family’s relgious convictions (as does his widow was Ann, not the Henriette whom Johnston continued to work in Charleston, Mary’s friendship with the Blount family). A ring César’s brother married in 1677). As the last under circumstances that may be inferred from left to Lady Isabella Finch perhaps adds weight names in the same act of denization, out of her husband’s correspondence: in a letter to the to the Luke de Beaulieu connection (he sequence, appear “ffrancisco de Beaulieu Bishop of Salisbury, 20.IX.1708, “I never dedicated an anti-Catholic tract to Isabella’s Susannae de Beaulieu Henrico et Henriettae repented so much of anything…as my coming to grandfather, while her sister-in-law, Mary liberis ejus”. This has hitherto been read as this Place”; “the People here…are the Vilest race Palmer, might be related to Luke de Beaulieu’s implying that the pastellist’s parents were Francis of Men upon the Earth”; while in a 1709 report wife Priscilla Palmer, whom he married in 1677). and Susanna, but the coincidence of François, to the English church authorities, “were it not Susanne and Henri being César’s known children for the assistance my wife gives me by drawing Monographic exhibitions suggests a printing confusion. of pictures (which can last but a little time in a Johnston 1991: Henrietta Johnston, “who greatly On 23.III.1694 (according to the allegation, place so ill peopled) I should not be able to live.” helped…by drawing pictures”, Winston-Salem, her mother Suzanne was then a widow) In a letter to Gideon Johnston of 20.II.1711, N.C., Museum of Early Southern Decorative Henrietta, “aged about 20”, resided in the parish John Chamberlayne, secretary of the Society, Arts, 12.X.–8.XII.1991; Charleston, The Gibbes Museum of Art, 13.XII.1991 – www.pastellists.com – all rights reserved 1 Updated 20 July 2020 Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 2.II.1992.