Sarah Biffin

Sarah Biffin's history is remarkable. Born in Somerset without hands, arms or feet, she taught herself to paint holding the brush between her teeth.

In circa 1797 a travelling showman, named Emmanuel Dukes, persuaded her parents to allow her to tour the country with him – exhibiting her talents (and disability) – for a salary of £5 a year. In 1808 she came to the attention of William, 16^th Earl of Morton, who organized for her to receive lessons in London from the Royal Academician William Craig (d. 1827).

Setting up a studio on Bond Street, she soon became very fashionable, in high demand from the aristocracy and receiving the patronage of the Royal family. In later years she was awarded a civil pension by Queen Victoria and in 1841 she moved to Liverpool, where she established a studio on Bold Street and where she would remain for the rest of her life.

The present work dates to 1844 and is comparable in technique to her Portrait of Queen Victoria, after Edmund Thomas Parris, which was painted in 1843.¹

For a self-portrait by the artist see, London, Sotheby's, Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries, 5 July 2023, lot 49.

1. See E. Rutherford et. al, Without Hands, The Art of Sarah Biffin, London 2022, p. 100, no. 37