'Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam' exhibition opens at The Royal Academy

BGUK_3643378 - The exhibition is the first major retrospective devoted to the Victorian artist Richard Dadd (1817-1886) in over 50 years. It brings together around 100 oil paintings, watercolours and drawings. Organised according to the key phases of the artist’s life, it will explore his early years in London as a student at the Royal Academy Schools, his travels, and the final 42 years of his life as a patient in Bethlem and Broadmoor Hospitals. Best known for his fairy scenes drawn from Shakespearean subjects, Dadd’s paintings are distinguished by their extraordinary intricacy and imaginative intensity. Recognised early for his remarkable skill at rendering detail, he was invited in 1842 on an ambitious tour across the Eastern Mediterranean that would shape the course of his life and work. The experience had a profound influence on his artistic imagination, but the itinerary was rushed and Dadd began experiencing delusions during the long journey. On his return to England, he killed his father, believing his true father to be the Egyptian God Osiris. He spent the remaining four decades of his life in hospitals including Bethlem in Lambeth (1844-64) and Broadmoor in Berkshire (1864-86). During this time, he continued to work from memory, imagination and earlier sketches. His art inspired many artists, writers and musicians, such as Cornelia Parker, Angela Carter and Queen, whose song ‘The Fairy-Feller’s Master-Stroke’ was directly inspired by Dadd’s painting of the same name. Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam will run in the Royal Academy’s Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries from 25 July – 25 October 2026. Artworks photographed: - 'Portrait of a Young Man' ( 1853 ) - 'Portrait of Sir Alexander Morison' ( 1852 ) - 'Self Portrait' ( 1841 ) - 'Titana Sleeping' ( 1841 ) - 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' ( 1855-64) - 'Bacchanalian Scene' ( 1862) - 'A Lady with a Minstrel' ( 1871) - 'Scene from Hamlet' (1841 )