Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd (b. August 1 1819 d. January 7 1886 ) Victorian painter of fairy subjects.

Richard Dadd was a painter, in obsessively miniscule detail of fairies and other supernatural subjects. A talented early career led to admission to the Royal Academy of Art at the age of 20.

During a trip to the Middle East and Europe in 1842, Dadd became progressively less rational, and increasingly violent.

On his return, he was determined to be of unsound mind, and was taken by his family to recuperate in the countryside village of Cobham. In 1843, Dadd murdered his father with a knife. Dadd fled for France; en route fo 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.

He was committed to the insane asylum of Bedlam, and diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. In the insane asylum he was allowed to continue to paint and it was here that many of his masterpieces were created. He was later transferred to the asylum of Broadmoor.