Sarah Biffin: the brilliant artist who found fame and royal favour – despite having no arms or legs
One of the most famous British painters of the first half of the 19th century was a woman born without arms or legs. Alice Loxton explores the life and work of an ambitious artist who became a favourite of royalty and was immortalised by Charles Dickens
The village of East Quantoxhead lies not far from the sea in north Somerset. Its medieval church still stands, a charming stone building with sandstone dressing and a slate roof, set back from the road, bordered by a low wall and surrounded by green fields. This sleepy little spot, a picture-perfect chocolate-box scene, was the birthplace of one of the most entrepreneurial and resolute artists in British history.
What made Sarah Biffin unique was not just her talent but the fact that she had to overcome such significant physical disadvantages. The record of her baptism at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in East Quantoxhead on 31 October 1784, when she was six days old, states that the “Daughter of Henry and Sarah Biffin” had been “born without arms or legs”.
Yet she never allowed her disability – nor the fact that she was working class, and a woman – to get in the way of her ambition.
How Sarah Biffin learned to paint
“At the age of eight years I was very desirous of acquiring the use of my needle,” she later recalled of her childhood years. “I was continually practising every invention, till at length I could, with my mouth, thread a needle and cut out and make my own dresses.” By the age of 12, she had taught herself to write by holding a utensil in her mouth.
In 1804, Biffin pushed herself further still. Under the guidance of a showman named Emmanuel Dukes, she learnt the basics of painting. “At the age of 20 I felt anxious to try my skill in the art of painting,” she wrote. “Here a naturally strong inclination prompted an assiduous application, and soon gave a facility to the use of the pencil; with what effect, let my humble productions speak for themselves.”
Later that year, Biffin left her family home to turn her skills into a career. “It was suggested to my parents that a comfortable living might be obtained by public exhibition,” she said, “and an engagement was arranged for that purpose.”
Over the years that followed, while she was in her early twenties, Biffin travelled extensively, exhibiting at fairs in towns and cities across Britain. Audiences would pay a fee to see her at work as she sewed, wrote and painted.
“The greatest wonder in the world”
Artworks and archival material now held at the Philip Mould & Company art gallery in London shine a light on this part of Biffin’s life. One large poster advertising her touring exhibition celebrates Biffin’s “astonishing powers” and declares her to be “the greatest wonder in the world”.
It also proclaims that “each visitor will be entitled to a specimen of her writing”. Incredibly, some of these specimens have also survived: little pieces of paper given out as souvenirs on which Biffin had – with beautifully formed letters – written her name and sometimes the location and date.
Another surviving object is a handbill advertising her appearance on Tuesday 1 December 1807 at “Mr Henzell’s, Long-Room, Old Flesh Market” in Newcastle. Biffin is described as “of comely Appearance, 22 years of age, and only 37 inches high”. There are practical details at the bottom of the document, including an admission fee (“Children, half price”), and sales talk: “Embrace this opportunity, as another may never offer!”
A turning point in Biffin’s life came in 1808 when she met George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton, who was so impressed with her skill that he presented her work to King George III, and paid for more artistic training. Her career as a portrait miniaturist began to take off, and commissions soon flooded in.
Sarah Biffin's royal reception
Another big year was 1821, when she took a studio in London, her work made it to the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, and she received a silver medal from the Royal Society of Arts. A few months later she travelled to Brussels, becoming miniature painter to Willem Frederik, future king of the Netherlands.
A short-lived marriage to a man called William Stephen Wright in 1824 (they appear to have separated soon afterwards) didn’t slow Biffin’s career, which continued to blossom. She taught in Birmingham, sharing a residence with an assistant, Miss Mary Ann Saunders. In 1830, she moved to Brighton, where George IV bought one of her self-portraits for 25 guineas.
Later that year she began working for Augusta Sophia, second daughter of George III, promoting herself as “miniature painter to HRH Princess Augusta”.
Plans to make it big in America
Even after gaining this royal approval, Biffin didn’t rest on her laurels. More determined and entrepreneurial than ever, she hatched plans to make it big in the US. “I am induced to take the advice of some of my friends and apply to you for your opinion respecting an intended project which I have for some time had in mind,” she wrote to an acquaintance in 1841. “This project is to visit America.”
That year, Biffin moved to Liverpool, the main port for Atlantic crossings. There she spent several years managing a studio and gallery on Bold Street, where members of the public would pay to see her work.
Sadly, Biffin’s global ambitions were scuppered by ill health. She died in 1850, aged 65, in her home at 8 Duke Street in Liverpool. Her death certificate cites the cause as a “disordered stomach and breaking up of the constitution”.
The great painter Sir Thomas Lawrence is said to have declared that he 'would rather have one of his pictures copied by Miss Biffin than by any artist he was acquainted with'
Her gravestone, which stood at St James Cemetery, Liverpool, but no longer survives, declared her to have been “Gifted with singular talents as an artist,” going on to say that “thousands have been gratified with the able productions of her pencil, while her versatile conversation and agreeable manners elicited the admiration of all.”
Biffin’s fame was immense during her lifetime. While her siblings continued to live in sleepy East Quantoxhead, she became a 19th-century household name who was referenced in three Charles Dickens novels. The great painter Sir Thomas Lawrence is said to have declared that he “would rather have one of his pictures copied by Miss Biffin than by any artist he was acquainted with”.
Sarah Biffin's 21st-century revival
During the 20th century, her name rather faded into obscurity – but it’s now back in the spotlight: the Sarah Biffin revival is on. When a self-portrait was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2019, the estimate was £800–£1,200 – but it fetched £137,500.
In 2022, Philip Mould & Company dedicated a major exhibition to her work – “Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin” – bringing together many of her pieces for the first time. Alongside exquisite miniature portraits were meticulously rendered studies of feathers, showcasing an extraordinary technical ability and beautifully delicate handling of watercolour.
Aside from her artistic skill, it is Biffin’s spirit that captivates. Newspapers of the day championed “the earnestness with which she has struggled, and the perseverance with which she has laboured, to attain by her own efforts an honourable independence”.
Not only did she excel in a society in which she seemed to have no place, she used her physical disability to break through barriers and thrive outside social and cultural norms. She gained recognition as a female artist, supported herself financially, and often went further even than non-disabled women of the day. Importantly, she never allow her disability to restrict her ambitions, and even championed it.
“Sarah Biffin”, she signed her works, adding proudly: “Without hands.”
Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and the author of Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives (Pan MacMillan, 2024)
This article was first published in the December 2024 issue of BBC History Magazine