Sarah Biffen

Sarah Biffin (25 October 1784 – 2 October 1850), also known as Sarah Biffen, Sarah Beffin or by her married name Mrs E. M. Wright, was an English painter born in Somerset. Biffin was born with phocomelia and had no arms and only vestigial legs, instead using her mouth to write, paint, and complete other tasks requiring implements. She was apprenticed to a man named Emmanuel Dukes, who exhibited her as an attraction throughout England. 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. 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, Biffin 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.