Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd was a painter, water colourist and draughtsman on wood. He exhibited at the RA and was active in London from 1834. Between July 1842 and May 1843 Dadd travelled through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and ‘Syria’ (the modern-day Arab countries west of Iraq), as the companion-draughtsman to Sir Thomas Philips, who paid Dadd’s expenses in return for the travel drawings that Dadd would make. It was towards the end of this tour that Dadd first began to show signs of mental instability. His symptoms indicate that he was probably suffering from Schizophrenia. His delusions included a belief that he was the son of Osiris the Egyptian sun god, and that his actual father was an imposter who needed to be sacrificed. Dadd killed his father in 1843 shortly after his return to England, after which he fled to France where he was captured after attempting the murder of another man who he felt called upon to kill. After being declared insane by French Authorities he spent a short time at an Asylum at Clairmont. He was admitted to Bethlem Hospital on 22 august 1844 and was later transferred to Broadmoor on 23 July 1864. He continued to paint and draw, producing intense and powerful images, including portraits and works of imagination. He died in Broadmoor on 8 January 1886. Dadd’s youngest brother George and sister Maria also suffered from mental illness and were both committed to asylums. Reference: The British Museum