1817-1886 was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail. Most of the works for which he is best known were created while he was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital. Dadd was born at Chatham, Medway in Kent, England, the son of a chemist. His aptitude for drawing was evident at an early age, leading to his admission to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 20. With William Powell Frith, Augustus Egg, Henry O'Neil and others, he founded The Clique, of which he was generally considered the leading talent. In July 1842, Sir Thomas Phillips, the former mayor of Newport, chose Dadd to accompany him as his draftsman on an expedition through Europe to Greece, Turkey, Palestine and finally Egypt. In November of that year they spent a gruelling two weeks in Palestine, passing from Jerusalem to Jordan and returning across the Engaddi wilderness. Toward the end of December, while travelling up the Nile by boat, Dadd underwent a dramatic personality change, becoming delusional and increasingly violent, and believing himself to be under the influence of the Egyptian god Osiris. His condition was initially thought to be sunstroke. On his return in the spring of 1843, he was diagnosed to be of unsound mind and was taken by his family to recuperate in the countryside village of Cobham, Kent. In August of that year, having become convinced that his father was the Devil in disguise, Dadd killed him with a knife and fled for France. En route to Paris Dadd attempted to kill another tourist with a razor, but was overpowered and was arrested by the police. Dadd confessed to the killing of his father and was returned to England, where he was committed to the criminal department of Bethlem psychiatric hospital (also known as Bedlam). Here and subsequently at the newly created Broadmoor, Dadd was cared for (and encouraged to continue painting) by the likes of Drs William Wood and Sir W. Charles Hood, in an enlightened manner. Which condition he suffered from is unclear, but it is usually understood to be a form of paranoid schizophrenia.He appears to have been genetically predisposed to mental illness; two of his siblings were similarly afflicted, while a third had "a private attendant" for unknown reasons.In the hospital he was allowed to continue to paint and it was here that many of his masterpieces were created, including his most celebrated painting, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, which he worked on between 1855 and 1864. Also dating from the 1850s are the thirty-three watercolour drawings titled Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, which include Grief or Sorrow, Love, and Jealousy, as well as Agony-Raving Madness and Murder. Like most of his works these are executed on a small scale and feature protagonists whose eyes are fixed in a peculiar, unfocused stare.  Related Paintings of Richard Dadd :. | The Tombs of the Caliphs | The Artist's Halt in the Desert (mk46) | The Fairy Feller Master Stroke by Richard Dadd | Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke | Come unto These Yellow Sands |
Related Artists:
MacLeod, William Douglas
American, 1811-92
cornelius hoyer
Cornelius Höyer, född 1741, död 1804, var en dansk målare. Höyer studerade dels i Köpenhamn, dels i Paris och Italien samt var redan 1769, då han återkom hem, en ansedd konstnär inom sitt fack, miniatyrmåleriet. 1770 blev han hovminiatyrmålare och medlem av konstakademien. Från 1777 var han dennas sekreterare.
Cosimo Tura
1430-95 Italian Cosimo Tura Galleries Cosimo Tura (c. 1430 ?C 1495), also known as Il Cosm?? or Cosme Tura, was an Italian early-Renaissance (or Quattrocento) painter and considered one of the founders of the School of Ferrara. Born in Ferrara, he was a student of Francesco Squarcione of Padua. Later he obtained patronage from both Dukes Borso and Ercole I d'Este. By 1460, he was stipended by the Ferrarese Court. His pupils include Francesco del Cossa and Francesco Bianchi. He appears influenced by Mantegna's and Piero della Francesca's quattrocento styles. In Ferrara, he is well represented by frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia (1469?C71) . This pleasure palace, with facade and architecture of little note, belonged to the d'Este family and is located just outside the medieval town walls. Cosimo, along with Francesco del Cossa, helped produce an intricately conceived allegorical series about the months of the year and zodiac symbols. The series contains contemporary portraits of musicians, laborers, and carnival floats in idyllic parades. As in Piero della Francesca's world, the unemotive figures mill in classical serenity. He also painted the organ doors for the Duomo showing the Annunciation (1469). He collaborated in the painting of a series of "muses" for a studiolo of Leonello d'Este, including the allegorical figure of Calliope at the National Gallery (see image). While the individual attributions are often debated, among the artists thought to complete the Angelo di Pietro da Sienna, also called Maccagino or Angelo Parrasio, and Michele Pannonio.