Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

, noted for his depictions of

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail. Most of the works for which he is best known were created while he was a patient in Bethlem and Broadmoor hospitals.

Early life

Dadd was born at

Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596. Th ...

, on 1 August 1817, the son of chemist Robert Dadd (1788/9–1843) and Mary Ann (1790–1824), daughter of the shipwright Richard Martin. He was educated at

King's School, Rochester The King's School, Rochester, is a private co-educational all through day and boarding school in Rochester, Kent. It is a cathedral school and, being part of the foundation of Rochester Cathedral. The school claims to be the second oldest c ...

, where his aptitude for drawing was evident at an early age, leading to his admission to the Royal Academy Art Schools at the age of 20. He was awarded the medal for life drawing in 1840.Souter 2012, p. 23 With William Powell Frith, Augustus Egg, Henry O'Neil and others, he founded

The Clique A clique is a close social group. Clique or The Clique may also refer to: Math and computing * Clique (graph theory) ** Clique problem in computer science Business and brands * Clique (vodka), a Latvian vodka sold in the United States * Clique ...

, of which he was generally considered to be the leading talent. He was also trained at William Dadson's Academy of Art.

Career

Richard Dadd - Caravanserai at Mylasa in Asia Minor - Google Art Project

Among his best-known early works are the illustrations he produced for ''The Book of British Ballads'' (1842), and a frontispiece he designed for ''The Kentish Coronal'' (1840). In July 1842, Sir Thomas Phillips, the former mayor of Newport, chose Dadd to accompany him as his draughtsman on an expedition through Europe to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Southern Syria Southern Syria () is a geographical term referring to the southern portion of either the Ottoman-period Vilayet of Syria, or the modern-day Arab Republic of Syria. The term was used in the Arabic language primarily from 1919 until the end of ...

and finally

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. In November of that year they spent a gruelling two weeks in Southern Syria, passing from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and returning across the Engaddi wilderness. Toward the end of December, while travelling up the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

by boat, Dadd underwent a dramatic personality change, becoming delusional, increasingly violent, and believing himself to be under the influence of the Egyptian god

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

. His condition was initially thought to be sunstroke.Allderidge 1974, ''Richard Dadd'', p. 22.

Mental illness and hospitalization

On his return to England in May 1843, Dadd was diagnosed to be of unsound mind and was taken by his family to recuperate in the rural village of

Cobham, Kent Cobham () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. The village is located south-east of Gravesend, and just south of Watling Street, the Roman road from Dover to London. The parish ...

. In August of that year, having become convinced that his father was the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

in disguise, Dadd killed him with a knife and fled to France. En route to Paris, Dadd attempted to kill a fellow passenger with a razor but was overpowered and arrested by police. Dadd confessed to killing his father and was returned to England, where he was committed to the criminal department of Bethlem psychiatric hospital (also known as Bedlam). There and subsequently at the newly created Broadmoor Hospital, Dadd was cared for in an enlightened manner by Doctors William Wood, William Orange and Sir William Charles Hood. Dadd probably had

paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, hearing voices), delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Symptoms develop gradually and typically begin ...

. Two of his siblings had the condition, while a third had "a private attendant" for unknown reasons. In hospital, Dadd was encouraged to continue painting, and in 1852 he created a portrait of one of his doctors, Alexander Morison, which now hangs in the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collec ...

. Dadd painted many of his best pictures in Bethlem and Broadmoor, including '' The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke'', which he worked on between 1855 and 1864. Dadd was pictured at work on his ''Contradiction: Oberon and Titania'' by the London society photographer . Also dating from the 1850s are the 33 watercolour drawings titled ''Sketches to Illustrate the Passions'', which include ''Grief or Sorrow'', ''Love'', and ''Jealousy'', as well as ''Agony-Raving Madness'' and ''Murder''. Like most of his works, these are executed on a small scale and feature protagonists whose eyes are fixed in a peculiar, unfocused stare. Dadd also produced many shipping scenes and landscapes during his hospitalization, such as the ethereal 1861 watercolour ''Port Stragglin''. These are executed with a miniaturist's eye for detail, which belies the fact that they are products of imagination and memory.

Death

After 20 years at Bethlem, Dadd was moved to Broadmoor Hospital, a newly built high-security facility in Berkshire. There he remained for the remainder of his life, painting constantly and receiving infrequent visitors; he died on 7 January 1886, "from an extensive disease of the lungs". A "substantial number" of his works are on display in the Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum.

Legacy

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. Regarded as one of the gre ...

was inspired to write the song ' The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' based on Dadd's painting, which he had seen at the Tate Gallery. In 2013

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

wrote an essay about the painting for the magazine ''Intelligent Life'' (now called ''1843'').

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

wrote ''Come unto these Yellow Sands'', a radio-play based on Dadd's life, first broadcast in 1979. Canadian author R. J. Anderson acknowledges Dadd as the basis of her fictional painter Alfred Wrenfield, who figures prominently in her young adult fantasy novel ''Knife'' (2009). In 1987, a long-lost watercolour by Dadd, ''The Artist's Halt in the Desert'', was discovered by Peter Nahum on the BBC TV programme ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

''. Made while the artist was incarcerated, it is based on sketches made during his tour of the Middle East, and shows his party encamped by the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

, with Dadd at the far right. It was later sold for £100,000 to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Loreena McKennitt Loreena McKennitt (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic music, Celtic and Middle Eastern music, Middle Eastern influences. McKenni ...

features Dadd's 1862 painting "Bacchanalian Scene" on the cover of her 1987 Christmas CD ''

To Drive the Cold Winter Away ''To Drive the Cold Winter Away'' is Canadian musician Loreena McKennitt's second studio album, released on January 11, 1987. It pays homage to her childhood memories of music for the winter season, the most vivid of which "came from songs and ca ...

''.

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

included ''The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke'' in his 2003

Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a fl ...

novel '' The Wee Free Men''. Tiffany, the protagonist, finds it in a book of fairy-tales and later escapes from a dream set within the picture. In the author's note, Pratchett describes the painting and gives a brief but sympathetic summary of Dadd's personal history and struggle with mental illness.

Gallery

File:Richard Dadd - Augustus Egg - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Augustus Egg'', between 1838 and 1840 File:"Portrait of a Young Man" by Richard Dadd.jpg, ''Portrait of a Young Man'', 1853 File:Titania Sleeping.jpg, ''Titania Sleeping'' File:Bacchanalian Scene by Richard Dadd.jpg, ''Bacchanalian Scene'', 1862

Notes

References

* Allderidge, Patricia (1974). ''Richard Dadd''. New York and London: St. Martin's Press/Academy Editions. * Allderidge, Patricia (1974). ''The Late Richard Dadd 1817–1886''. London: The Tate Gallery. * Chaney, Edward (2006). 'Egypt in England and America: The Cultural Memorials of Religion, Royalty and Religion', ''Sites of Exchange: European Crossroads and Faultlines'', eds. M. Ascari and A. Corrado. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. * Chaney, Edward (2006b). 'Freudian Egypt', ''The London Magazine'' (April/May 2006), pp. 62–69. * Greysmith, David (1973). ''Richard Dadd: The Rock and Castle of Seclusion''. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. * * Tromans, Nicholas (2011). ''Richard Dadd: the Artist and the Asylum''. London: The Tate Gallery. *