NSFW - Is This the First-Ever ‘Sext’?
Edition #36 - A 19th-century self-portrait erotic miniature
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Is This the First-Ever ‘Sext’?
Beauty Revealed is an 1828 painting by American artist Sarah Goodridge.
Considering the period it was created, this painting scandalized the art world. Even more so because a woman created it. You see, at the time, men create most nude paintings in art history.
A faceless miniature portrait of a woman with her shiny and supple bosoms. A shimmery white cloth is wrapped around her chest to make it aesthetically pleasing.
The breasts seem to be of a specific woman, not a generic portrait. Why? Because of the birthmark on the left breast.
Whose portrait is it? Why did Goodridge craft this provocative art piece?
Let’s unravel this.
This painting seems to be Goodridge’s portrait; she was 40 at the time. Born in a poor household, using paper was a luxury. She taught herself to paint on kitchen slabs and birch barks.
Primarily a self-taught artist, she became predominately famous for her miniature portraits.
Be Revealed is also teeny tiny — 6.7 x 8 centimeters. The miniature somehow doesn’t make it any less shocking.
Goodridge created this sensual portrait for her rumored lover Daniel Webster, upon the death of his first wife.
Webster was an American diplomat and an influential personality.
Art historians speculate that this gift was Goodridge’s gesture to propose to Webster for marriage. But the plan didn’t work out and Webster married a younger, wealthier woman.
Goodridge dressed this image in shadow and light. The breasts are of perfect size and shape even at the age of 40.
What does this painting speak to you?
It might narrate Goodridge’s boldness and feminist thoughts. In 1800s New England where the society was conservative and women were limited to household chores, Goodridge made her own name in the art world.
She chose to live her life on her own terms. It was her body and her life. She held the right to offer her body to someone she wanted.
And so she chose to make an intimate picture and send it to her lover. There is an inherent warmth and radiance in the painting.
A classic example of women’s empowerment and emancipation.
But if we look at the picture through a different lens, it might focus on the internalized male gaze — a constant pressure for a woman to look good and beautiful.
Here’s what art critic John Berger says,
“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed is female. Thus she turns herself into an object of vision: a sight.”
What are your thoughts on this painting? Let me know in the comments.
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