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Sarah Biffen | |
|---|---|
 Sarah Biffen's self-portrait, 1830 | |
| Born | 1784 East Quantoxhead, Somerset, England |
| Died | (aged 66) Liverpool, England |
| Resting place | St James Cemetery, Liverpool |
| Other names | Sarah Biffin; Sarah Beffin; Mrs E. M. Wright |
| Known for | Painting |
| Style | Mouth and foot painting |
| Spouse | William Stephen Wright (m. 1824) |
| Patron(s) | George Douglas, the Earl of Morton |
Sarah Biffen (1784 – 2 October 1850), also known as Sarah Biffin, Sarah Beffin,[1] or by her married name Mrs E. M. Wright,[2] was an English painter born with no arms and only vestigial legs. She was born in 1784 in Somerset.[3] Despite her disability she learned to read and write, and to paint using her mouth. She was apprenticed to a man named Emmanuel Dukes, who exhibited her as an attraction throughout England.[4] In the St. Bartholomew's Fair of 1808, she came to the attention of George Douglas, the Earl of Morton, who went on to sponsor her to receive lessons from a Royal Academy of Arts painter, William Craig.[5] The Society of Arts awarded her a medal in 1821 for a historical miniature and the Royal Academy accepted her paintings. The Royal Family commissioned her to paint miniature portraits of them. When the Earl of Morton died in 1827, Biffen was left without a noble sponsor and she ran into financial trouble. Queen Victoria awarded her a Civil List pension and she retired to a private life in Liverpool. She died on 2 October 1850 at the age of 66.
- ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Biffin, Sarah". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 19.
- ^ "Sarah Biffin, Mrs E.M. Wright, 1784–1850. Artist (Self-portrait)". www.nationalgalleries.org. The National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ "Sarah Biffin". South West Heritage Trust. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ^ "Sarah Biffin: the celebrated nineteenth-century artist born without arms or legs | Art UK". artuk.org. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ^ "Museum of Somerset buys self-portrait by Victorian artist Sarah Biffin". 18 February 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024.