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Richard Dadd (August 1 1817 - January 7 1886) was
a Victorian era|Victorian painter of fairies and
other supernatural subjects, depicting them with
obsessively minuscule detail. A talented early
career led to admission to the Royal Academy of
Arts at the age of 20. With William Powell Frith,
Augustus Egg, Henry O'Neil and others, he founded
The Clique.

During a trip to the Middle East and Europe in
1842, Dadd became progressively less rational and
increasingly violent, believing himself to be
under the influence of the Egyptian god Osiris. 

On his return, he was diagnosed to be of unsound
mind and was taken by his family to recuperate in
the countryside village of Cobham, Kent. In 1843,
Dadd murdered his father with a knife whilst
deluded, believing him to be the Devil in
disguise, and fled for France; en route to Paris,
France|Paris Dadd attempted to murder another
tourist with a razor, but was unsuccessful and was
arrested by the police. Dadd confessed to the
murder of his father and was returned to England,
where he was committed to the criminal department
of Bedlam|Bethlem psychiatric hospital. 

In the hospital he was allowed to continue to
paint and it was here that many of his
masterpieces were created. After 20 years at
Bethlem, he was transferred to Broadmoor
Hospital|Broadmoor, another psychiatric hospital,
where he lived out the rest of his life.

Which condition he suffered from is unclear, but
it is usually understood to be a form of
schizophrenia. Alternatively, it is sometimes
claimed that he suffered from what is now known as
bipolar disorder. 

His most celebrated painting, The Fairy Feller's
Master-Stroke, was to become the title of a song
by the rock band Queen (rock band)|Queen. Come
unto these Yellow Sands, a play based on his life,
was written by Angela Carter.
"The Wee Free Men"- a discworld novel by Terry
Pratchett edited in 2003 was in a central part
inspired by the painting "the fairy feller's
Master-Stroke".

==See also==
*Fairy painting

==External links==
* http://www.artmagick.com/thumbs/dadd.aspx
Picture thumbnails
*
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/6/465-
a22 Dadd's portrait of Alexander Morison
*
http://www.pemcom.demon.co.uk/queen/queen2/ffms.jp
g The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke by Richard Dadd
*
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/richa
rd_dadd.html Biography of Richard Dadd