Beauty Revealed

Epic card · No. 4366

Beauty Revealed is an 1828 watercolor painting on ivory by the American artist Sarah Goodridge. Identified as a self-portrait, it depicts a pair of bared breasts surrounded by white cloth. The 2.6-by-3.1-inch (6.7 by 8 cm) painting, originally backed with paper, is now in a modern case. Goodridge, aged forty when she completed the watercolor portrait miniature on a piece of ivory, presented the breasts as youthful and individualized. She employed a frontal view that showed only the area from the collarbone to just underneath the breasts, thereby anonymizing the portrait. Goodridge gave the portrait to statesman Daniel Webster, who was a frequent subject and possibly a lover, following the death of his wife; it may have been intended to offer the artist to him. Although Webster married someone else, his family held onto the portrait until 1981, when it was auctioned at Christie's. Purchased by Gloria and Richard Manney, the painting was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Sarah Goodridge, Public domain