Sarah Goodridge

Born in 1788 in Massachusetts, she was largely self-taught due to limited educational opportunities for women. Lacking resources for paper, she famously made her early sketches on birch bark.¹

She painted many prominent Americans, including Daniel Webster and General Henry Knox. Her works were exhibited in Boston and Washington, D.C., earning her high social standing.¹

From 1820, she lived in Boston and supported herself and her family for decades through portrait commissions, a rare feat of financial independence for a female artist at the time.¹

She specialized in miniatures painted on ivory, receiving lessons from Elkanah Tisdale to master the delicate technique of capturing personality within a tiny, condensed format.¹

In Boston, she met the renowned painter Gilbert Stuart, who critiqued her work and provided technical instruction, forming a significant mentorship that influenced her professional development.¹

In 1825, she painted a portrait of Gilbert Stuart, which he claimed was the only true likeness ever done of him, solidifying her reputation as a master of miniature portraiture.¹

Her miniatures were typically painted on slivers of ivory measuring only a few inches. Her ability to render life-like textures and vitality on such a tiny scale was highly acclaimed.¹

Her 1828 work 'Beauty Revealed' is a daring miniature of her own bared breasts, presented to her close friend Daniel Webster, challenging the social conventions of the era.¹

After her eyesight failed in 1851, she retired from painting and settled in Reading, Massachusetts, where she lived until her death in 1853.¹