Indika
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When ppl are left to themselves they are good it seems only society creates bad humans.
Richard Dadd: The art of a 'criminal lunatic' murderer - BBC News
By Paul KerleyBBC News Magazine
Image copyrightWinchester College
Image captionPortrait studies of figures in Eastern Costume (1842), by Richard Dadd
Promising artist Richard Dadd murdered his father in the summer of 1843. Detained as a "criminal lunatic", he continued to paint during his incarceration. He is now remembered as one of the Victorian era's most accomplished artists.
"Richard Dadd was a real bright young thing in the late 1830s and early 1840s," says Victoria Northwood, director of the Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Hospital in south London.
The museum is hosting a major retrospective of Dadd's art - with works from both before and after his detention.
"Dadd lost his mother when he was young, and his father remarried," explains Northwood. "They were from Chatham in Kent originally - but moved up to London.
"By his 20s had been shown at the Royal Academy."
Image copyrightBethlem Museum of the Mind
Dadd sketched the self-portrait above in 1841 - and around the same time he created this circular depiction of Shakespeare's mischievous elf character, Puck, from a Midsummer Night's Dream.
Image copyrightHarris Museum and Art Gallery
The following year, Dadd was asked by Sir Thomas Phillips - a Welsh lawyer and politician - to document his grand tour of Europe and parts of the Middle East.
Here, Dadd depicts Phillips in Turkish dress.
Image copyrightBethlem Museum of the Mind
"The tour was fast-moving and inspirational for Dadd," says Northwood.
He used sketch books to record their travels - planning to paint in detail on his return home.
The next image is somewhere between a sketch and a finished work.
Image copyrightWinchester College
Dadd returned from the grand tour in 1843, earlier than planned.
He was not well. Friends and family suspected heatstroke or some sort of mental crisis. He went with his father back to his childhood home in Kent - and it was there, as they walked in Cobham Park near Gravesend, that he murdered his father.
Dadd had been under the delusion that he was the son of the Egyptian god Osiris - and that his father was, therefore, an impostor.
He fled to France, but was tracked down.
Image copyrightBethlem Museum of the Mind
Image captionRoyal Hospital of Bethlehem, The Gallery for Men (1860) - from Illustrated London News
Dadd never stood trial but was instead sent - as a "criminal lunatic" - straight to Bethlem Hospital, which at the time was on the current site of the Imperial War Museum in south London.
The image above, originally published in the Illustrated London News, shows how conditions would have been for Dadd in Bethlem from the early 1850s.
Victoria Northwood says when Dadd first arrived there, in the mid-1840s, asylum life would have been tough.
But the following decade saw significant improvements to conditions for some patients thanks to the hands-on approach of Sir William Charles Hood - the hospital's first resident physician.
It was thanks to Hood that Dadd was able to continue painting.
Image copyrightBethlem Museum of the Mind
The above photo - one of dozens taken of Bethlem patients by photographer, Henry Hering - shows Richard Dadd working on a painting called Contradiction.
The next three images come from Dadd's Passions series, which looks at human conditions and emotions.
Richard Dadd: The art of a 'criminal lunatic' murderer - BBC News
By Paul KerleyBBC News Magazine
- 13 November 2015
- From the sectionMagazine
Image captionPortrait studies of figures in Eastern Costume (1842), by Richard Dadd
Promising artist Richard Dadd murdered his father in the summer of 1843. Detained as a "criminal lunatic", he continued to paint during his incarceration. He is now remembered as one of the Victorian era's most accomplished artists.
"Richard Dadd was a real bright young thing in the late 1830s and early 1840s," says Victoria Northwood, director of the Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Hospital in south London.
The museum is hosting a major retrospective of Dadd's art - with works from both before and after his detention.
"Dadd lost his mother when he was young, and his father remarried," explains Northwood. "They were from Chatham in Kent originally - but moved up to London.
"By his 20s had been shown at the Royal Academy."
Dadd sketched the self-portrait above in 1841 - and around the same time he created this circular depiction of Shakespeare's mischievous elf character, Puck, from a Midsummer Night's Dream.
The following year, Dadd was asked by Sir Thomas Phillips - a Welsh lawyer and politician - to document his grand tour of Europe and parts of the Middle East.
Here, Dadd depicts Phillips in Turkish dress.
"The tour was fast-moving and inspirational for Dadd," says Northwood.
He used sketch books to record their travels - planning to paint in detail on his return home.
The next image is somewhere between a sketch and a finished work.
Dadd returned from the grand tour in 1843, earlier than planned.
He was not well. Friends and family suspected heatstroke or some sort of mental crisis. He went with his father back to his childhood home in Kent - and it was there, as they walked in Cobham Park near Gravesend, that he murdered his father.
Dadd had been under the delusion that he was the son of the Egyptian god Osiris - and that his father was, therefore, an impostor.
He fled to France, but was tracked down.
Image captionRoyal Hospital of Bethlehem, The Gallery for Men (1860) - from Illustrated London News
Dadd never stood trial but was instead sent - as a "criminal lunatic" - straight to Bethlem Hospital, which at the time was on the current site of the Imperial War Museum in south London.
The image above, originally published in the Illustrated London News, shows how conditions would have been for Dadd in Bethlem from the early 1850s.
Victoria Northwood says when Dadd first arrived there, in the mid-1840s, asylum life would have been tough.
But the following decade saw significant improvements to conditions for some patients thanks to the hands-on approach of Sir William Charles Hood - the hospital's first resident physician.
It was thanks to Hood that Dadd was able to continue painting.
The above photo - one of dozens taken of Bethlem patients by photographer, Henry Hering - shows Richard Dadd working on a painting called Contradiction.
The next three images come from Dadd's Passions series, which looks at human conditions and emotions.
