Sarah Goodridge - Beauty revealed

• Title: Beauty revealed
• Artist: Sarah Goodridge (1788-1853)
• Date: 1828
• Medium: Watercolor on ivory
• Dimensions: 6.7 x 8 cm (fitted in a little box)

Beauty Revealed is an 1828 self-portrait of her breast by the American artist Sarah Goodridge, a watercolor portrait miniature on a piece of ivory. Depicting only the artist's bared breasts surrounded by white cloth, the 6.7-by-8-centimeter (2.6 by 3.1 in) painting, originally backed with paper, is now in a modern frame. Goodridge, aged forty when she completed the miniature, depicts breasts that appear imbued with a "balance, paleness, and buoyancy" by the harmony of light, color, and balance. The surrounding cloth draws the viewer to focus on them, leading to the body being "erased".[1]

Goodridge gave the portrait to statesman Daniel Webster, who was a frequent subject and possibly a lover, following the death of his wife; she may have intended to provoke him into marrying her. Although Webster married someone else, his family held onto the portrait until the 1980s,