Sarah Goodridge facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sarah Goodridge
Self-portrait (1830)
Born	(1788-02-05)February 5, 1788 Templeton, Massachusetts, US
Died	December 28, 1853(1853-12-28) (aged 65) Boston, Massachusetts, US
Known for	Portrait miniature

Sarah Goodridge (February 5, 1788 – December 28, 1853; also referred to as Sarah Goodrich) was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures. She was the older sister of Elizabeth Goodridge, also an American miniaturist.

Life

Goodridge was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, 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, for a few months in Milton, 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 who took an interest in her work.

In 1820, she went to live with her sister Eliza in Boston 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. After her eyesight failed in 1851, she retired from painting and settled in Reading, Massachusetts.

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

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  Portrait of Daniel Webster, 1825

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  Portrait of Gilbert Stuart, 1825

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  The Studious Youth (master Edward Appleton)

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  Emily Appleton

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  Gilbert Stuart, miniature on a fob

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  Beulah Appleton and her cat