Sarah Biffin, 19th-Century Artist With No Limbs, Smashes Auction Estimates

At a recent sale at the Sworders auction house, a small painting of feathers by 19th-century artist Sarah Biffin sold for over US$12,000, fetching nearly twice its estimated amount of US$6,680.

The painting, created in 1812, was a 4 x 5.5-inch work on paper discovered in the collection of a late antiquities dealer from Cambridgeshire, UK, earlier this month. 

More amazing is the backstory of its artist, Biffin, who was born to a low-income family in Somerset, England, in 1784. Born without limbs, the painter managed to carve out a successful art career for herself despite living in a period that didn’t take kindly to women or people with disabilities.

According to The Telegraph, Biffin taught herself to draw, paint, and sew at the age of 10—using her mouth, teeth, and shoulders instead of the usual hands and feet. She was first in the public eye at 13, when she joined a traveling circus under showman Emmanuel Dukes.

The teen performed across the country, showing off her painting skills as the “limbless wonder.” A pamphlet, which was sold as part of the recent lot, described Biffin as a miniature painter who possessed “wonderful powers.”

“Writes well, draws landscapes, paints miniatures, and many more astonishing things, all of which she performs principally with her mouth,” it read.

Biffin’s art caught the eye of George Douglas, the Earl of Morton, which allowed her to quit the circus and set up her own studio under his patronage, as per the Smithsonian Magazine.

She then had the opportunity to further her artistic studies at the Royal Academy of Arts before going on to high-profile commissions for King George III, Prince Albert, George IV, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and Queen Victoria.

There appears to be a resurgence in art collectors’ appreciation for Biffin’s works, seeing as the artist’s paintings have won high prices in recent years. For example, as per the Antiques Trade Gazette, a self-portrait smashed its estimate of US$1,603 to sell for US$183,726 in 2019 at Sotheby’s. Another work of feathers fetched US$87,495 instead of its pre-sale estimate of US$8,012 this year.

Essaka Joshua, scholar of literature and disability studies at the University of Notre Dame, summed it up best when he wrote for Art UK, saying: “As a disabled woman artist working in the early nineteenth century, her remarkable story is one of perseverance and resilience.”

[via Smithsonian Magazine, images via various sources]