By AGNES M. DODS; from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May 1947.
THE WORK OF SARAH GOODRIDGE, one of the lesser known miniature painters of New England, has been increasing steadily in popularity for some years. Although her claim to fame rests mainly on her miniature of Gilbert Stuart, a diligent search of the countryside has brought to light many excellent likenesses from her brush.
Biographical material concerning this artist is somewhat meager. We do know that she was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, February 5, 1788, the daughter of Ebenezer and Beulah (Childs) Goodridge. Her father was an itinerant shoemaker whose duties took him far from home and his somewhat unusual family. Eben, an older son, made organs and later went to Boston where he taught music. David, another son, became a physician, while Eliza also developed artistic talent.
Sarah’s first artistic attempts were pictures drawn on the sanded floor of the kitchen with a sharp stick or scratched on white birch logs piled in the yard for fuel. At school she drew portraits of schoolmates.
At an early period in her life Sarah became interested in sculpturing but since materials were scarce this talent was never developed. After teaching in the village schools for a while, she went to Boston to live with relatives and here she was said to have become acquainted with an unknown individual from Hartford, Connecticut, who taught her all he knew about painting. A small booklet containing instructions for painting on ivory came into her possession and she followed the text carefully, soon developing a style of her own.
Her first portraits were life-size crayons in red and black. These were executed at Templeton during the summer of 1812 while the artist was on a vacation at her former home. Some water colors were also produced at this time. The prices of the latter were slightly higher than the fifty cents charged for crayons. Later Miss Goodridge worked in oil, but she soon gave up that medium and devoted herself to miniatures.
In 1820 she opened a studio in Boston and settled down in earnest to her career. A friend introduced her to the master, Gilbert Stuart, who saw great promise in her work and advised her to attend a drawing school for further instruction. He also examined her work and gave generously of his criticism and suggestions for improvement. In 1825 he sat to her for the now famous miniature, which he declared to be his only true likeness. This is now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and shows Stuart as a rugged individual.
Another of her famous subjects was Daniel Webster. An unfinished miniature of Webster is on loan at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston , which own another likeness.
In 1828-1829, and again in 1841-1842, the artist was in Washington, where she is thought to have carried on her profession as a painter. A little later she returned to Massachusetts, where she bought a home in Reading. She continued to work, and is said to have produced a miniature every few days. Her death occurred in 1853, shortly after a Christmas vacation spent with her relatives in Boston. She was stricken with paralysis, and died within a few days.
Since Sarah Goodridge is known to have worked up until a short while before her death, the forty or so miniatures listed here are but a part of what must have been a prolific output. It is hoped that more may be brought to the attention of museums and historical societies as time goes on.
The Goodridge miniatures are almost invariably painted on ivory in water color. Each subject is carefully depicted. The color scheme is somewhat drab, with a bit of color appearing unexpectedly in a shawl, drapery, or upholstery. Her earlier miniatures, of course, were somewhat crude, but she developed a technique that was almost photographic in detail.
A very human side of the artist is revealed in a set of paper dolls painted for the artist’s niece, and owned by Miss Eleanor Whidden of Marblehead. These are inscribed Painted for Ellen Bailey Goodridge, 1842. There is an entire family: a father, a mother delicately gowned in pink, an infant with removable layette, compete even to a pair of tiny socks with tassels, a golden-haired daughter, and a little boy.
Note: Among the works consulted for these notes on Sarah Goodridge are The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, by George C. Mason, and American Portraits(1620-1827) found in Massachusetts (2 vols.), Boston, 1939. I am deeply indebted to Miss Eleanor Whidden of Marblehead for information concerning the artist; also to Miss Elizabeth Simpson of “Littlewood,” Mexico, New York; the Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts; the Department of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
MINIATURES BY SARAH GOODRIDGE
ABBOT, REVEREND JOHN EMERY (1783-1819)
Size: 23/4 by 23/4 inches
Owner: Essex Institute, Salem Massachusetts
ALLEN, MRS. SARAH JONES
Size: 21/2 by 21/8 inches
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
APPLETON, ELIZABETH
Size: 7 cm. by 5.5 cm
Owner: 1931, Ehrich Galleries, New York
(There is also one listed as owned by Miss Caroline Prince, New York.)
APPLETON, SARAH, AND HER CAT “SANKO”
Size: 31/2 by 31/2 inches
Owner: Miss Eleanor Whidden, Marblehead, Massachusetts
AUSTIN, MRS. JAMES TRECOTHICK (CATHERINE GERRY) (1808-1899)
Size: Unknown
Owner: Elbridge Gerry Greene, Lancaster, Massachusetts
AUSTIN, IVERS T.
Size: Uknown
Owner: Elbridge Gerry Greene, Lancaster
BAILEY, ELEANOR
Size: Unknown
Owner: Mrs. A. H. Ward, Milton, Massachusetts
BAILEY, EBEN
Size: Unknown
Owner: Mrs. A. H. Ward, Milton
BUSH, JONATHAN (1790-1854)
Size: 31/4 by 25/8 inches
Owner: Mrs. George N. Lewis, Cambridge, Massachusetts
BUSH, MRS. JONATHAN
Size: 23/4 by 31/2 inches
Owner: 1925, Miss B. V. Osgood, Cambridge, Massachusetts
CHANDLER, CATHERINE AMORY (later Mrs. Theophilus Parsons)
Size: 31/16 by 21/2 inches
Owner: Miss Sabra Parsons Mallet, Garden City, Long Island
CHANDLER, NATHANIEL (1773-1852)
Size: 37/16 by 23/4 inches
Owner: Miss Sabra Parsons Mallett, Garden City, Long Island
CHANDLER, MRS. NATHANIEL (Polly Greene of Woodstock, Vermont) (1783-1869)
Size: 31/2 by 25/8 inches
Owner: Miss Sabra Parsons Mallet, Garden City, Long Island
CHILD, WILLIAM (1759-1836)
Size: 33/4 by 23/4
Owner: Unknown
(Note: There is a miniature of William Child, .10 by .077, owned by Miss B. V. Osgood, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1925) and attributed to Eliza Goodridge)
CODMAN, HENRY (1789-1854)
Size: 31/2 by 3 inches
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
GOODRIDGE, MRS. EBEN (Lydia Bailey)
Size: Unknown
Owner: Mrs. A. H. Ward, Milton
GOODRIDGE, JAMES EDWARD
Size: Unknown
Owner: Mrs. A. H. Ward, Milton
GOODRIDGE, SARAH (1788-1853)
Size: 41/4 by 43/4 inches (on parchment)
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
GOUDRY, MRS. ALICE (of Wilmington, Massachusetts)
Size: 31/2 by 27/8 inches
Owner: Metropolitan Museum of Art
GRAY, NICHOLAS
Size: 21/2 by 23/4
Owner: Mrs. A. Clark Walling, Boston
HEYWOOD, NATHANIEL (1788-1832)
Size: Unknown
Owner: Mabel Brady Garvan collection, New Haven, Connecticut
JOY, MRS. BENJAMIN (Hannah Barrell) (1773-1842)
Size: 31/2 by 27/8
Owner: Mrs. Charles Henry Joy, Boston
KNOX, GENERAL HENRY (1750-1806)
Size: 13/4 by 21/4 inches (after Gilbert Stuart)
Owner: Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
LEE, MAJOR GENERAL HENRY (1756-1818)
Size: Unknown (after Gilbert Stuart)
Owner: 1938, Luke Vincent Lockwood, New York
MELLEN, GRENVILLE (1789-1841)
Size: 23/4 inches diameter
Owner: Herbert L. Pratt, Glen Cove, Long Island
OTIS, MRS. SAMUEL ALLEYNE (Mary Smith) (1757-1842)
Size: .088 by .065
Owner: Miss Gertrude Townsend, Boston
PAINE, DOCTOR WILLIAM
Size: Unknown (painted 1825)
Owner: Misses Frances and Bessie Paine, Brookline, Massachusetts
PARSONS, THEOPHILUS
Size: 31/16 by 27/16 inches (inscribed Painted by S. Goodridge November 1820)
Owner: Mrs. Percy S. Mallet, Garden City
PEABODY, MRS. FRANCIS (Martha Endicott) (1799-1891)
Size: Unknown
Owner: 1924, Mrs. John Endicott Peabody
PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD (1785-1819)
Size: .06 by .075
Owner: Dwight Prouty, Washington, D.C.
(C.H. Hart said, “Not Perry; not by Sarah Goodridge”)
RICHARDSON, LYDIA (Mrs. Leonard)
Size: 33/4 by 23/4 inches (attributed to Sarah Goodridge, but not typical of her work)
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
ROBBINS, CHANDLER (Minister of Second Church, Boston)
Size: 21/2 by 2 inches
Owner: Miss Eleanor Whidden, Marblehead
SARGENT, ESTHER (Later Mrs. Thomas Coffin) (1798-1847)
Size: Unknown
Owner: Elbridge Gerry Greene, Lancaster
SARGENT, FITZWILLIAM
Size: Unknown
Owner: Unknown
SARGENT, IGNATIUS (brother of Esther Sargent) (1800-1884)
Size: Unknown
Owner: Elbridge Gerry Greene, Lancaster
SARGENT, JULIANA
Size: Unknown
Owner: Unknown
SARGENT, MRS. SOLOMON
Size: 23/4 by 31/2 inches
Owner: 1925, Miss B. V. Osgood, Cambridge
STONE, COLONEL EPHRAIM
Size: 21/2 by 11/2 inches
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
STONE, MRS. EPHRAIM (Eliza Goodridge (b. 1798)
Size: 21/2 by 21/2 inches
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
STUART, GILBERT (1755-1828)
Size: 37/10 by 3 inches
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
STUART, GILBERT (1755-1828)
Size: 31/4 by 21/4 inches
Owner: Metropolitan Museum of Art
STURGIS, RUSSELL (1750-1826)
Size: 31/2 by 41/4 inches (after Gilbert Stuart)
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
Size: 3 by 21/4 inches
Owner: Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
TUCKER, MRS. ICHABOD (Sarah Orne Paine) (1774-1854)
Size: 4 by 31/2 inches. (painted in 1811)
Owner: Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
WEBSTER, DANIEL (1782-1852)
Size: Approx. 31/4 by 3 inches (unfinished)
On Loan: Massachusetts Historical Society
WEBSTER, DANIEL (1782-1852)
Size: Approx. 31/4 by 3 inches (painted in 1827)
Owner: Massachusetts Historical Society
(In 1931 Herbert L. Pratt owned a miniature of Webster by Sarah Goodridge, 9 cm. by 7 cm.)
WEBSTER, EZEKIEL (brother of Daniel) (1780-1829)
Size: 3 by 27/16 inches
Owner: 1938, Erskine Hewitt, New York
WEBSTER, MRS. EZEKIEL
Size: 3 by 27/16 inches
Owner: 1938, Erskine Hewitt, New York
WILLARD, MRS. JOSEPH
Size: 31/4 by 25/8 inches
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
WILLARD, JOSEPH
Size: 31/4 by 25/8 inches
Owner: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
WINSLOW, ANDREW GARDNER
Size: 7.3 cm. by 6 cm.
Owner: 1931, Clapp and Graham Co., New York
UNKNOWN WOMAN
Size: 3 by 11/2 inches (attributed to Sarah Goodridge)
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
UNKNOWN WOMAN (a Mrs. Hale of New Hampshire?)
Size: 33/8 by 23/8 inches
Owner: Miss Eleanor Whidden, Marblehead
UNKNOWN GIRL
Size: Approx. 3 by 11/2 inches (attributed to Sarah Goodridge)
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
UNKNOWN MAN
Size: 3 by 11/2 inches
Owner: Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts
UKNOWN MAN
Size: 3 by 21/2 inches
Owner: Miss Eleanor Whidden, Marblehead