The Art of Bedlam: Richard Dadd
Thankfully this exhibition resists the temptation to market Richard Dadd as 'an outsider artist'– a term far too frequently applied and often without proper consideration to the artist and their work. This show considers how Dadd's work and highly original imagination thrived in both Bethlem and Broadmoor and the people and contexts from and around which he made his work, whilst also reflecting on Dadd as an individual. The show includes work from before his illness and his most famous and perhaps accomplished piece, 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke'. As well as his series of 'Illustrations of the Passions' which, as the Watts gallery says, is, "his own protracted interpretation – witty, strange and touching in turn – of the causes of insanity".
Whilst a student at the Royal Academy (a contemporary and friend of G F Watts) Dadd (1817 – 1886) was well respected and considered to be an extremely promising young artist. He was known for being particularly gifted at interpreting Shakespeare and producing incredibly detailed literary illustrations – throughout his life both talents continued to be central to his work. His professional life, however was derailed when, during his twenties he became mentally ill and killed his father. Consequently he was permanently detained in Bethlem (informally known as Bedlam) and Broadmoor hospitals. Although no longer a member of recognised art society, Dadd continued to paint throughout his life.
His work clearly involved huge amounts of focus and has the intensity of being by someone who was actually there, which is made all the more powerful by the fact that his content is completely fantastical. There is the feeling that Dadd really knew and understood each of the characters and stories he was illustrating.
Whilst travelling in the middle east during the 1840s, Dadd's mental health rapidly declined and in one letter he wrote, "the excitement of these scenes has been enough to turn the brain of an ordinary weak-minded person like myself, and often I have lain down at night with my imagination so full of wild vagaries that I have really and truly doubted my own sanity," which of course in retrospect is extremely tragic (on his return he murdered his father – because he believed that the Egyptian gods required a sacrifice) but also seems very appropriate when looking at his paintings – they are literally swelling with vivid ideas and experiences.
Watts Gallery
Whilst a student at the Royal Academy (a contemporary and friend of G F Watts) Dadd (1817 – 1886) was well respected and considered to be an extremely promising young artist. He was known for being particularly gifted at interpreting Shakespeare and producing incredibly detailed literary illustrations – throughout his life both talents continued to be central to his work. His professional life, however was derailed when, during his twenties he became mentally ill and killed his father. Consequently he was permanently detained in Bethlem (informally known as Bedlam) and Broadmoor hospitals. Although no longer a member of recognised art society, Dadd continued to paint throughout his life.
His work clearly involved huge amounts of focus and has the intensity of being by someone who was actually there, which is made all the more powerful by the fact that his content is completely fantastical. There is the feeling that Dadd really knew and understood each of the characters and stories he was illustrating.
Whilst travelling in the middle east during the 1840s, Dadd's mental health rapidly declined and in one letter he wrote, "the excitement of these scenes has been enough to turn the brain of an ordinary weak-minded person like myself, and often I have lain down at night with my imagination so full of wild vagaries that I have really and truly doubted my own sanity," which of course in retrospect is extremely tragic (on his return he murdered his father – because he believed that the Egyptian gods required a sacrifice) but also seems very appropriate when looking at his paintings – they are literally swelling with vivid ideas and experiences.
Watts Gallery
Until 1 November
Free entry
www.wattsgallery.org.uk