Henriette Charlotte Chastaigner (1700-1754) was the daughter of one of the Huguenot families of Charleston. She married Nathaniel Broughton of Mulberry, a plantation on the Cooper River in Berkeley County that had served as a shelter to other planters during the Yamasee War. Her portrait illustrates both the appearance of a young girl of fashion early in the 18th century, and the talents of one of Charleston's artists, Henrietta Johnston. Johnston arrived in Charleston in 1707 with her husband Gideon Johnston, the rector of St. Philip's Church (see The Dock Street Theater And St. Philip's Church). She supplemented the family income by painting pastel portraits--the first man or woman artist in the United States to use that medium. She painted this portrait of Henriette in 1711 when her subject was 11.
Courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association.
