Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at Royal Academy Explores Victorian Painter's Asylum Years

The Royal Academy of Arts in London presents 'Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam', the most comprehensive exhibition of the Victorian painter's work since 1974. Dadd (1817-1886) was committed to Bethlem Hospital in 1844 after murdering his father during a psychotic episode, and later transferred to Broadmoor Asylum in 1864. Despite incarceration, he continued painting from memory and imagination. The show includes 100 works, notably 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' (1855-64), 'Puck' (1841), 'Titania Sleeping' (1841), 'Contradiction: Oberon and Titania' (1854-58), and 'Bacchanalian Scene' (1862). Guest curator Nicholas Tromans, author of the 2011 monograph 'Richard Dadd: The Artist and the Asylum', organized the exhibition. The catalogue features essays by art historians including Sarah Thomas, who interprets 'The Child's Problem' (1857), and psychiatrist Robert Howard, who diagnoses Dadd as schizophrenic. The 1974 Tate exhibition catalogue by Patricia Allderidge remains a key reference. Conservation lighting requires visitors to use magnifying glasses to appreciate Dadd's miniature-like watercolours. The exhibition runs from 25 July to 25 October.