The troubled artist who found solace in fairies - then murdered his father
The Royal Academy of Arts is hosting a new exhibition on Victorian artist Richard Dadd, who spent most of his life in psychiatric institutions after murdering his father. The show aims to reframe Dadd as a technically accomplished artist rather than just a 'mad' outsider, highlighting his intricate, folkloric paintings.
Why it matters
It challenges historical stigmas surrounding mental illness and artistic genius, encouraging a more nuanced appreciation of artists with psychiatric histories.
Dadd was fascinated by costumes and Orientalist themes, as well as fairies (Titania Sleeping, 1841) - Royal Academy of Arts More than half a century has elapsed since the last big exhibition of work by Richard Dadd, the Victorian one-off who murdered his father while in his 20s and spent the rest of his life painting in psychiatric institutions. The most famous of his seemingly psychedelic compositions is The Fairy-Feller's Master-Stroke (1855-64), an airless, intricate and profoundly eccentric picture swarming with supernatural creatures, each apparently no bigger than a blade of grass. Surely it's the product of a fevered brain?
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