Sarah Biffin

Early life

Sarah Biffin came into the world on 25 October 1784 in East Quantoxhead, Somerset. Her father Henry was a shoemaker, and she was the youngest of five children, raised in a farmworker's cottage on the village edge.

Born with phocomelia, she had no arms and only partial legs, standing 37 inches tall in adulthood. She taught herself to read as a child and later learned to write by gripping a pen in her mouth. Over time, she adapted this method to hold drawing and sewing tools as well.

Career

Around age 13, around 1797, Biffin entered a formal apprenticeship with travelling showman Emmanuel Dukes, who exhibited her at fairs and public entertainments across England. Advertised as the 'Eighth Wonder', audiences watched her write, draw, paint, and sew using her mouth and shoulder; visitors paid an admission fee and could purchase examples of her work. At age 23, in 1808, she appeared at Bartholomew Fair in London, exhibited from a showman's caravan decorated with a mermaid image.

There, George Douglas, the Earl of Morton, attended several sittings, removing an unfinished miniature between sessions to ensure she worked unaided. Satisfied, he became her patron and arranged for her to study under William Marshall Craig. During her apprenticeship, her portrait miniatures sold for three guineas each, though she may have received as little as £5 a year from Dukes. By about 1817, she left Dukes's employment under Morton's patronage, opening a studio on the Strand in London and accepting portrait commissions.

She painted for King George III, King George IV, King William IV and Queen Victoria, and also travelled to Brussels with Morton, receiving commissions from the royal court. In 1821, the Society of Arts awarded her a medal for a historical miniature, and her paintings were accepted for exhibition by the Royal Academy of Arts, where she continued to exhibit during the 1820s and early 1830s. Her surviving works include portrait miniatures, landscapes, still lifes and self-portraits, many signed 'Without Hands'.

Marriage and relationships

In September 1824, when she was 39, Sarah Biffin married William Stephen Wright, a clerk at a bank who was said to have been devoted to her for a long time. After the wedding, she stopped painting for a while and started showing her work as Mrs E. M. Wright. The marriage did not last, and they separated after only a few years.

Wright kept control of the money she had made and gave her an annual allowance of 40 pounds. Biffin went back to her art in the late 1820s and early 1830s, still using her married name at the Royal Academy. When she moved to Liverpool in 1841 at age 56, she began signing her pieces as Miss Biffin once more.

Legacy

Biffin is recorded as the first British mouth painter by Mouth and Foot Painting Artists. A self-portrait engraved by RW Sievier and published in June 1821 sold at Sotheby’s in 1986 and again on 5 December 2019, with an estimate of £800–£1200 but a final sale price of £137,500.

The first exhibition of her work for 100 years, 'Without Hands: the Art of Sarah Biffin', was held at Philip Mould & Company, London in 2022. In February 2024, the Museum of Somerset in Taunton acquired a self-portrait by Biffin. A watercolour dated circa 1812 is in the Welcome Collection, and additional works are at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Did You Know?

• Sarah Biffin stood only 37 inches (94 cm) tall as an adult.
• After her separation, her husband William Stephen Wright provided her an annual allowance of £40.