Richard Dadd

Richard began his life with a tremendously promising career as a distinguished painter.

 Of the seven children of Robert Dadd’s first marriage, three, Richard, George, and Maria were to become completely insane, while Stephen had a private attendant but little more is known of his circumstances. Robert the eldest brother, born 13, July 1813 practiced as a chemist for many years in Whitechapel. George was the youngest of Richard’s full brothers, born 13, December 1822. He was a skilled carpenter at Chatham Dockyard. He began to show signs of mental instability when he was 20 yrs old and in 1843, the same year that Richard became unstable. He was admitted to Bethlehem and stayed there until his death in 1868. Though both brothers were confined in the same hospital, it is unlikely they met. John, a half brother, born to his father’s second wife and the second of two boys, was born 24, May 1829. He was apprenticed to Robert and went to America to establish a popular drug store. 

 

Many of Richard’s surviving artwork was painted during his confinement in Bethlehem and later Broadmoor. Dadd was thought to have had heatstroke on his return from the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Trip, and was in belief that he was the Egyptian God, Osiris. He believed that he needed to rid the world of the devil, his chosen victim being his father whom he murdered. It was difficult for him whilst incarcerated, as so many around him could be a target for his delusions. He was described as good company by the superintendent physician who was given several paintings. He played the violin which brought solace to the inmates. Sadly many of his works have been lost, and some known only by photographs taken at the time. 

In the entrance to Bethlehem Hospital, Caius Gabriel Cibber’s statue of Raving Madness greeted the visitor and some of Dadd’s artwork also depicts the horrors of insanity, such as Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, Hatred, Self Contempt, Self Conceit, Duplicity, Grief, Recklessness, Melancholy, Agony and Murder. 

Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk