Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam (2026)

• Richard Dadd: genius and tragedy – the Victorian artist who created extraordinary fairy paintings while confined for forty years in institutions
• Includes his masterpiece The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke and other intricate works
• New definitive account by the leading authority, exploring Dadd’s life, art and enduring legacy
• Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, from July 25th to October 25th, 2026, bringing together more than 60 works that track Dadd’s life and career – art that was as radical and imaginative in his time as it is today

Richard Dadd (1817–1886) constructed fairytale worlds and other highly original works of art. After making his name as an exceptional student at the Royal Academy in the late 1830s, he travelled to the Eastern Mediterranean, where he developed a psychotic illness that led to the killing of his father. Dadd spent the rest of his life in London’s Bethlem Royal Hospital and then Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, in both of which he was encouraged to paint.