Portrait of a Lady
ca. 1820
Medium
Watercolor on ivory
Dimensions
3 1/4 x 2 3/8 in. (8.3 x 6.1 cm)
Classification
Painting, miniature
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Gloria Manney, 2006
Accession Number
2006.235.75
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of early 19th-century America with *Portrait of a Lady* by Sarah Goodridge, created around 1820. This exquisite watercolor on ivory miniature, measuring just 3 1/4 x 2 3/8 inches, captures the refined elegance of its unnamed female subject. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing, it reflects the Federal-era fascination with personal keepsakes—small-scale portraits often worn as lockets or brooches, preserving loved ones' likenesses during an age of separation by travel or loss. Sarah Goodridge, a pioneering Boston-based artist and one of the few ...
About the Artist
Sarah Goodridge · 1788–1853
Sarah Goodridge (1788–1853) was a pioneering American miniaturist whose exquisite portrait miniatures captured the likenesses of prominent figures during the early republic. Born on February 5 in Templeton, Massachusetts, as the sixth of nine children to farmer Ebenezer Goodridge and Beulah Childs, she displayed artistic talent from childhood despite limited resources. Largely self-taught, she ske...