Early History of Art and Artists in South Carolina

South Carolina has been home to an array of noteworthy individuals and styles in the literary, visual, and performing arts. What follows is a brief overview of the arts in South Carolina from the time of its earliest settlers through the end of the 1700’s.

• Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues was one of the earliest artists to visit the Southeastern coastal areas of the New World back in the 1500’s. He made watercolors of coastal settlements following a 1564 expedition to the region. These were then converted by Theodor deBry into engravings that were widely circulated back in Europe.

• Mark Catesby was an English naturalist who studied flora and fauna in the New World between 1729 and 1747. He undertook a plant-collecting expedition to Carolina on behalf of the Royal Society in 1722. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, he traveled to various parts of the colony collecting plants and animals and ultimately published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, providing some of the first accounts and etchings of the local flora and fauna.

• Thomas Coram (1756-1811) was the first known professional artist in the South to explore the art of landscape for purely aesthetic purposes, well before the indigenous landscape art tradition developed. The largest collection of Coram’s work is in the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.

Portraiture was one of the dominant art forms in the Eighteenth century and Charleston was home to many of the portraitists from the pre-Revolutionary War era, such as Henrietta Dering Johnston and Jeremiah Theus. They painted prominent planters, merchants and their family members, providing a visual social registry of the period. Many local military figures and statesmen, such as Colonel William Moultrie and William Loughton Smith, also had their portraits painted by the prominent artists of the day such as Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart.

Henrietta Dering Johnston (1670-1729) arrived in Charles Town, South Carolina, in 1707. In addition to being the first professional female artist in the American colonies, Henrietta Johnston was also the first artist in the colonies to work primarily with pastels.

Other Selected Arts & Culture Events of This Period

• First opera performed on February 18, 1735 - Colley Cibber's ballad opera Flora, or Hob in the Well, was performed at the Courtroom in Charles Town, South Carolina. The Courtroom was a large room in Shepard's Tavern that the provincial government also used as a court house.

• St. Cecelia Musical Society established in 1762 - The St Cecilia Society of Charleston was formed in 1766 as a private subscription concert organization. The society continued to flourish into the 21st century as one of South Carolina’s oldest and most exclusive social institutions.

• Charleston Museum established in January 1773 - A special committee was appointed by Lieutenant Governor William Bull II to collect materials for the museum that was formally established by the Charleston Library Society on the eve of the American Revolution.

In general the taste of prominent South Carolinians was conservative with many local collectors acquiring fine furniture and decorative arts while abroad, preferring European paintings over work created locally. For more information on the history of South Carolina arts and culture, check out the selected links below.

Selected Links

• SC Encyclopedia – Art History
• SCIWay – Arts & Culture
• SC Art & Artists – Current Overview
• SC State Library - History & Culture