SARAH BIFFIN (BIFFEN) (1784-1850); watercolour, study of Celine Celeste with landscape beyond, unsigned, 37.5 x 26.5cm, framed and glazed.

N.B Beneath the mount there is a typed label, numbered 27 and detailing an inscription on label which is no longer present.

Private collection, Worcestershire.

Sarah Biffin was an early 19^th century watercolourist, born with no arms and only vestigial legs. Despite her disability, she learned to paint using her mouth and received lessons from the Royal Academy of Arts painter William Craig. When her sponsor, the Earl of Morton died in 1827, Biffin was left without a sponsor and ran into financial trouble. Queen Victoria awarded her a Civil List pension and she retired to private life in Liverpool. She tried to revive her career using the name Mrs E.M. Wright, however this was unsuccessful.

Madame Marie Taglioni Comptesse de Voisins (1804-1884) was a noted Swedish born ballet dancer who was a central figure of the history of European dance. She spent most of her life in the Austrian Empire and France and was one of the most celebrated ballerinas of the romantic ballet which was cultivated primarily at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London and at the Paris Opera Ballet. She is credited with (though not confirmed as) being the first ballerina to truly dance ‘en pointe’.