Museum of Somerset buys self-portrait by Victorian artist Sarah Biffin

A museum has acquired a self-portrait miniature of a disabled Victorian artist.

Sarah Biffin was born with no arms or legs in 1734 and learned to draw and paint by mouth.

The Museum of Somerset, in Taunton, which holds the largest public collection of her works, recently bought the self-portrait.

Tom Mayberry, former CEO of the South West Heritage Trust, described it as "a most extraordinary work".

He added: "She was highly-regarded in her lifetime although her achievement was always promoted separately from her disability.

"She doesn't make a fuss of her disability, it is just who she is and the portrait is an extraordinary testament to an extraordinary person."

"She neither hides nor emphasises her disability but treats it as only one aspect of the mature, confident and highly-respected artist she had become," he said.

Despite being mocked throughout her life for her disability, she gained commissions from royalty, including Queen Victoria and Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester.

The last of her self-portraits, painted in 1842, is regarded as the culmination of her work.

"Although the butt of jokes, some recognised in her a richly gifted person," said Mr Mayberry.

Sarah Biffin was born into a farming family in East Quantoxhead with the rare condition now known as phocomelia.

At the age of 20 she was exhibited as an attraction by a travelling showman at fairs throughout England.

"She was being displayed in fairground tents all over the country and was regarded as a spectacle, as an object of wonder, sometimes as a phenomenon," said Mr Mayberry.

In the St Bartholomew's Fair of 1808 she was spotted by the Earl of Morton, who sponsored her to receive lessons from a Royal Academy of Arts painter, William Craig, which led to her rise to fame.

"Her skills developed considerably and by the time she was in her 30s and 40s she was an extraordinarily talented artist, as good as the best portrait miniaturists," said Mr Mayberry.

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