Sarah Goodridge (February 5, 1788 – December 28, 1853; also referred to as Sarah Goodrich) was an American painter who specialized in

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

s. She was the older sister of

Elizabeth Goodridge Elizabeth (Eliza) Goodridge (March 12, 1798 – April 18, 1882) was an American painter who specialized in miniatures. She was the younger sister of Sarah Goodridge, also an American miniaturist. Early life Goodridge was born in Templeton, Ma ...

, also an American miniaturist.

Life

Goodridge was born in

Templeton, Massachusetts Templeton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,149 at the 2020 census. The town comprises four main villages: Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville, and Otter River. Geography According to ...

, the sixth child and third daughter of Ebenezer Goodridge and his wife Beulah Childs. At an early age, she began drawing and showed an aptitude for art. Women's educational opportunities were limited at the time and where Goodridge lived, so she was largely a self-taught artist. She attended the local district school. Her early sketches of people around her were on birch bark since she lacked the resources to purchase paper. She stayed with her brother,

William M. Goodrich William Marcellus Goodrich (* 21 July 1777 in Templeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts; † 15 September 1833) was an organ builder in the United States. Biography He was the son of Ebenezer and Beulah Goodridge. His father was a farmer. As ...

, for a few months in

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

, and attended a boarding school there. She also got a few drawing lessons in Boston where she accompanied her brother. In Boston, she also met

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

who took an interest in her work. In 1820, she went to live with her sister Eliza in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and began receiving lessons and painting miniature portraits. She earned enough from commissions to support herself and her family for several decades. She eventually specialized in miniatures painted on ivory, getting lessons from a Hartford miniaturist, almost certainly Elkanah Tisdale. Her paintings were exhibited in Boston and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

After her eyesight failed in 1851, she retired from painting and settled in

Reading, Massachusetts Reading ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, north of central Boston. The population was 25,518 at the 2020 census. History Settlement and American independence Many of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's original settler ...

. Goodridge became well known for her portraits of politician Daniel Webster and fellow artist

. Among Goodridge's works is a miniature portrait of her own bared breasts, titled ''

Beauty Revealed ''Beauty Revealed'' is an 1828 self-portrait by the American artist Sarah Goodridge, a watercolor portrait miniature on a piece of ivory. Depicting only the artist's bared breasts surrounded by white cloth, the painting, originally backed with ...

'', now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The miniature was painted on a sliver of ivory that measured just 2 5/8 by 3 1/8 inches. Executed in 1828, it was presented by the artist to her close friend, correspondent, and occasional subject, Daniel Webster. The work was included in the retrospective "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions." It was the inspiration for a miniature painted by the fictional heroine of '' Blindspot: A Novel'' (New York, 2008), by

Jane Kamensky Jane Kamensky, an American historian, is a professor of history at Harvard University. She is also the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library. Kamensky graduated from Yale University in 1985 with a B.A., and in ...

and

Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American ...

. File:Daniel Webster (1825) by Sarah Goodridge.jpg, Portrait of Daniel Webster, 1825 File:Gilbert Stuart crop.jpg, Portrait of

, 1825 File:The Studious Youth (master Edward Appleton) by Sarah Goodridge.jpg, The Studious Youth (master Edward Appleton) File:Sarah Goodridge - Emily Appleton - 1942.11.1 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg, Emily Appleton File:Sarah Goodridge - Gilbert Stuart - 1999.27.16 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg, ''Gilbert Stuart'', miniature on a fob File:Sarah Goodridge - Beulah Appleton - 1942.11.7 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg, ''Beulah Appleton'' and her cat File:Sarah Goodridge Beauty Revealed The Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg, ''

'', 1828

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * Lamothe, Lori
"A Shocking Miniature and a Mysterious Connection: The story of Sarah Goodridge and Daniel Webster"
in The Collector. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodridge, Sarah 1788 births 1853 deaths American women painters People from Templeton, Massachusetts Portrait miniaturists Artists from Boston 19th century in Boston Painters from Massachusetts 19th-century American painters