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This poignant watercolour of a wreath of flowers was painted by the artist Sarah Biffin, one of the most accomplished and entrepreneurial British artists at work during the nineteenth century. By the date that this work was painted, Biffin had become a household name – she had recently been mentioned in three novels by Charles Dickens and had been patronised by the royal family. Painted three years before her death, the melancholy words ‘Forget me Not’, inscribed on a ribbon, leave a particularly moving impression.

Biffin was born into a farming family in Somerset in 1784, and her baptism records show that she was ‘born without arms and legs’. Teaching herself to write and draw from a young age, Biffin rose to fame as an artist and established a professional career as a portrait painter. She began her career in 1804, at twenty years old, when a man named Mr Dukes offered her employment as part of a travelling act. She signed a contract with Dukes and began a tirelessly itinerant lifestyle, exhibiting at fairs in regional towns and cities across the length and breadth of Britain. She abided by her contract with Dukes for around fifteen years, before she formed her own independent career. Once freed from the constraints (both practical and financial) of Duke’s contract, Biffin’s career flourished. Within two years of leaving her contract, she took a studio in London, won a silver medal from the Society of Arts, exhibited four works at the Royal Academy of Arts and travelled to Brussels, where she was appointed miniature painter to Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange (and future king of the Netherlands). Throughout her long and successful career, she travelled extensively, took commissions from royalty, and recorded her own likeness through exquisitely detailed self-portraits. However, by the date that this work was completed, Biffin’s health had severely deteriorated, and her financial situation had become increasingly unstable.

This work itself evidences the straitened circumstances under which Biffin was working during her late career. It is a reminder of her earlier life at the fairs, where hastily executed autographs were sold for low prices; the small scale suggests a seeming return to her former practice, implying the Biffin’s need to produce works swiftly, for a small fee.
On account of her deteriorating eyesight and dwindling commissions, an attempt to raise money for her - initiated by the Rathbone family, well-known Liverpool philanthropists - was circulated in the Morning Post: ‘To those who have at any time whiled away their hour in her studio, listened to her anecdotes, joined in her cheerful laugh, or been impressed with admiration at her persevering talents, this appeal is more especially made, that by their contributions an annuity may be purchased for the support of her few remaining years.’[1] It formed the basis for a more formal and targeted appeal in 1847 – the same year as the present work – organised by Richard Rathbone, a commission merchant, and committed slavery abolitionist. Noting Biffin’s achievements and relationships, the 1847 appeal included a request to raise a total of a thousand pounds to guarantee the artist an income of a hundred pounds a year. A subscription list was circulated, headed by the Queen Dowager, followed by the Duchess of Kent and the Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duke of Cambridge.
Despite these circumstances, Biffin continued to paint and take commissions until her death - she exhibited her last work at the Royal Academy of Arts the same year as her death. This work, poignantly inscribed ‘Forget me Not’, is a reminder of her artistic legacy.

[1] ‘Testimonial from the Friends and Admirers’, Morning Post, 13 & 22 February 1843, p. 1, 4, 8; ‘Testimonial from the Friends and Admirers’, Morning Post, 9 March 1843, p. 1; ‘Testimonial from the Friends and Admirers’, Morning Post, 1 April 1843, p. 1.