The Astonishing History of the First Nude Selfie Ever Sent Nearly 200 Years Ago

Everything starts somewhere—even nude selfies.

Did you know the very first nude selfie was sent long before social media and cellphones existed? Even before cameras were readily available?

American painter Sarah Goodridge's "Beauty Revealed" is largely believed to be one of the first documented "nudes" ever sent.

In 1828, when she was 40 years old, Goodridge painted a self-portrait of her bare breasts on a piece of ivory. The piece was a portrait miniature at only 2.6 x 3.1 inches.

The watercolor painting depicts only her breasts surrounded by white cloth, with no face or other bodily features visible.

At the time, nudes were a rare genre in culture, making "Beauty Revealed" a unique and ahead-of-its-time piece.

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Goodridge crafted the portrait for Daniel Webster, a frequent subject of hers and a possible lover.

Goodridge was a prolific and well-known portrait miniature artist in Boston at the time, while Webster was a prominent Massachusetts senator.

She sent him the portrait following the death of his wife, seemingly in the hope to entice him to marry her.

In the end, Webster wasn't swayed by the elegant nude and went on to marry another, wealthier woman which helped him with his political ambitions.

See Goodridge's "Beauty Revealed" painting, below.

The pair exchanged many letters throughout the years, with Webster sending the artist more than 40 letters between 1827 and 1851.

The greetings from Webster reportedly became increasingly friendly the longer the letters went on.

On the other hand, Goodridge lent the senator money regularly and painted him more than a dozen times, even painting portraits of his family.

Goodridge visited Webster in Washington, D.C. in 1828 after the death of his first wife, which was the same year she gifted him the nude painting.

Though he never asked for her hand in marriage despite the nude offering, Webster and Goodridge went on to meet up a second time in D.C. around 1841 or 1842 when he was separated from his second wife.

After Webster's death, the nude painting stayed in his family along with another self-portrait done by Goodridge.

The family held onto the art until the 1980s, when it was sold to New York-based art collectors Gloria and Richard Manney.

The piece has been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The miniature was gifted to the Met permanently in 2006 by the Manneys. According to the museum's website, it is on view for the public as of 2025.