This pastel was among the first that Johnston executed in Charleston, South Carolina, just following her arrival there with her husband from Dublin in 1708. The artist rendered the facial features with precision and blended colors, particularly in the hair, as she had done in Ireland. Pierre Bacot, also called Peter Bacot, was born in Tours, France, in 1684 and was brought by his family to South Carolina as an infant. After his father's death in 1702, Bacot moved to Goose Creek, where he bought and sold land for a living. Sometime after 1705, he married Marianne Fleur Du Gue, whose portrait by Johnston is also in the Museum's collection (47.103.23).

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