Limbless Masters
Art that heals and courage that inspires
This post was inspired by a recent sale of the notable The Pohl-Ströher Collection of Portrait Miniatures that happened on Sotheby’s couple of weeks ago.
A skillful self-portrait of not-a-household-name artist was estimated at quite an ambitious sum for this type of art [while portrait miniatures are usually still well under-estimated] — £ 1,200–1,800.
To everyone’s big (and happy) surprise it made a striking £137,500 in spite of a crack from the left side and some initial colour fading! What a record!
This was a miniature self-portrait before her easel by Sarah Biffin (or Biffen), later Mrs Wright, from circa 1821.
She was born without arms or legs and learned to write, paint and sew with her mouth. She painted miniatures with brush held between her teeth. The brush was fastened at her shoulder when not in use — you can see it on the left.
Her paintings were eventually accepted into the Royal Academy and The Society of Artists awarded her a medal in 1821. The Royal Family commissioned her to paint their portraits in miniature and she did so for Queen Victoria among others.
All in all, she lived a very fulfilling and rewarding life while she was lucky enough to have met not indifferent people in power that sponsored and supported her until her final years. There are several beautiful detailed articles about her in the internet already, so I suggest you read this one, for example, shall you wish to learn more about her living.
Actually, it’s amazing how far one could have gone in art hundreds years ago even facing some utterly serious and tragic disadvantage right from the beginning.
Matthias Buchinger (1674–1740), like Sarah Biffin, was born with phocomelia — the condition when the upper limbs are not fully formed and sections of the hands and arms may be missing.
Buchinger was known as “The Greatest German Living” — magician (that’s right!), calligrapher, and performer who was born without arms or legs and was only 74 cm (29 in) tall. Being born limbless didn’t stop him from becoming a great calligrapher, engraver and a sketch artist. He was also an accomplished musician who played many instruments including the flute, bagpipe, and trumpet.
He was especially noted for his micrography, in which illustrations consist of very small text. His coloured micrography is especially distinctive because these rare artworks were customarily rendered in black and white.
Matthias Buchinger was a man of a strong will and a celebrity of his time. In spite of his severe disabilities he lived a long life of 65 years full of fame and adventures, was married 4 times and become a father of at least 11 legitimate children.
Louis Joseph César Ducornet (1806 — 1856) from France was another European painter affected by this unfortunate phocomelia condition right from his birth. He had neither arms nor thighs, and only four toes to his right foot — and this is was enough to create his rather skillful paintings.
He showed interest and a talent to drawing and painting right from his childhood. Though coming from a poor family he managed to study art in Lille and then continue his apprenticeship in Paris thanks to the aid from his local municipality.
All this support was not in vain — he was awarded several medals at the famous annual Salon d’Art and even received a government pension from King Louis XVIII for a short period of time.
Not all of the unusual yet interesting and talented artists were born with such severe disabilities. Some of them managed to overcome dramatically unfortunate twists of fate that happened later in their lives and find their new selves in these new circumstances.
Thomas Schweicker (1540 — 1602) from late 16th century was one of them.
He was another German artist and calligrapher though he had lost his arms in a duel.
“The two dueled over the right to court a female that the two were both infatuated with. In the duel, Schweicker’s left arm was dismembered by von Williamsburg’s sword but he continued to duel with his right arm. After a long and drawn out duel, von Williamsburg dismembered Schweicker’s right arm as well. Schweicker finally admitted defeat before passing out from blood loss. Spectators on the scene of the duel brought an injured and unconscious Schweicker back to the town of Schwäbisch Hall where a doctor was able to cauterize his wounds, saving his life. After waking up, Schweicker yelled “Abwarten, was passiert” to the doctor and family. This loosely translates to “wait what happened” in English. Schweicker’s arms were burned the next day.” (Wiki article about the artist)
Known as a “great miracle man of Schwäbisch Hall” he became a great master of calligraphy only after the incident. Like Matthias Buchinger he was a celebrity of his epoch and was skillful enough to have a great success and make a decent living.
Even emperor Maximilian II made Schweicker his court painter where he remained until the final years of his long and fruitful life.
A serious accident from May 1836 changed the life of John Carter (1815 — 1850) forever. After a drinking accident a former English silk weaver became paralysed from below the neck, though with some movement in the chest and left shoulder.
An awful disaster which could have ended his life gave the birth to his real childhood dreams of becoming an artist. He taught himself to draw with his mounth, using either a slate or a piece of paper pinned to his pillow, and a pencil or very-fine brush fixed with his teeth.
He devoted himself to drawing and copied artworks after Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Rembrandt, van Dyck, and Landseer in an engraving style.
He was also keen on drawing animals and the great animalist, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer described his work as the finest specimen of animal drawing he had ever seen.
He died only at the age of 35 though his artistic practice helped him overcome his life-changing tragedy and gifted him another 14 years of meaningful living and creating process that made his mark in art history.
