18/08/26
Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam
Royal Academy of Arts, London
25 July – 25 October 2026
If you have heard of Richard Dadd (1817-86), it will doubtless be on account of his fairy paintings, but these number only five out of a much wider catalogue raisonné. His is another case of biography taking over from art, with the artist spending 42 years locked up in asylums after killing his father in an outbreak of psychosis, caused by what today would be recognised as schizophrenia. Nicholas Tromans, the curator of this exhibition at the Royal Academy, sets out with the clear goal, as suggested by the subtitle “Beyond Bedlam”, of “rescuing the art from the story”. As such, little mention is made of Dadd’s madness, which can be read about further in the exhibition catalogue, as well as an excellent previous volume by Tromans from 2011, and, while it certainly adds to the understanding of the works, it is no great loss, and having the focus placed solely on the artistic value of his work is a worthwhile and rewarding undertaking.
Dadd was born in Chatham, Kent, one of seven children. His mother died a few days before his seventh birthday. When he was 17, his father took the family to live in the centre of London, around the corner from what was about to become Trafalgar Square, and, three years later, Dadd, who had been drawing since he was 13, entered the Royal Academy Schools. Here, he became one of the most feted students, attending the antique school more often in 1838 than any other student, and winning medals for his work in the life drawing and painting schools. Among the visiting tutors at that time were JMW Turner and Daniel Maclise, whose literary and mythological imagery was a decisive influence on Dadd’s early work. He and his friends, who became known as “the Clique”, would meet to invent pictorial compositions from texts by Byron and Shakespeare, and Dadd created a “gothic rococo” persona for himself.
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