Dates | 1817 - 1886 |
Roles | Artist |
Nationality | British |
Born | Chatham, England |
Died | Berkshire, England |
The fourth of eleven children of a chemist and druggist, Richard Dadd began his artistic training at the age of thirteen. He studied
Dadd's
In 1842 Dadd left England on a one-year drawing trip throughout Europe and the Middle East. Shortly after his return, he lost his sanity, as had three of his siblings. Dadd murdered his father, attempted to kill a stranger, and spoke of killing the pope and the emperor of Austria, insisting that the Egyptian god Osiris requested these acts. In 1843 the courts and his family committed him to an insane asylum, where he remained for the next forty-three years, continuing to paint.