Sarah Goodridge was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 painter who specialized in miniature

Miniature (illuminated manuscript)

The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, red lead, is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment...

s. She was the older sister of Elizabeth (Eliza) Goodridge

Elizabeth Goodridge

Elizabeth Goodridge was an American painter who specialized in miniatures. She was the younger sister of Sarah Goodridge, also an American miniaturist....

, also an American miniaturist.

Goodridge was born in Templeton, Massachusetts

Templeton, Massachusetts

Templeton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,013 at the 2010 census. The town comprises four main villages: Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville, and Otter River...

, 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 essentially a self-taught artist.

In 1820, she went to live with her sister Eliza in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and began receiving lessons and painting miniature portraits of exceptional quality. Her work continued to improve and she earned enough from commissions to support herself and her family for several decades. Her paintings were exhibited in Boston and Washington D.C.. After her eyesight failed in 1851, she retired from painting and settled in Reading, Massachusetts

Reading, Massachusetts

Reading is an affluent town situated in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, some north of central Boston. The population was 24,747 at the 2010 census.-Settlement and Independence:...

.

Among Goodridge's most interesting and personal works is a miniature portrait of her own bared breasts, entitled Beauty Revealed, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Executed in 1828, it was presented by the artist to her close friend, correspondent, and occasional subject, Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...

 (see reference below). Beauty Revealed was the inspiration for a miniature painted by the fictional heroine of Blindspot: A Novel (New York, 2008), by Jane Kamensky

Jane Kamensky

Jane Kamensky is an American historian, and Harry S. Truman Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University.She graduated from Yale University, with a B.A. and Ph.D. in History.She was a Radcliffe Institute Fellow in 2006–2007....

 and Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore is a professor of American history at Harvard University and chair of Harvard's History and Literature Program. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker, and her essays and reviews have also appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The American Scholar, and in...

.