In memory of Richard Dadd: ten of his best, and thoughts about his life and work. Would we have been any better towards him even now?
Category Archive: Life
The decline and fall of Medea, as her sorcery is used for murder, and she kills her own infant sons. Paintings by Delacroix, Turner, and others.
Classical history paintings are rarer than those of myth. Even fewer show the most anomalous of classical societies: the Spartans.
Two recent retail experiences remind me of my mis-spent youth, when I learned the hard way what it takes to sell to customers.
In 1864, he was transferred to the newly-built Broadmoor Asylum. Despite that disruption, he continued to paint.
An unusual story of sorcery used to restore youth has seldom been painted – even after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein became popular.
In which Dadd becomes a nineteenth-century Bosch on some seriously psychotropic drugs. It is a masterpiece like no other.
A couple of watercolours give some insight into those around him, and pose a perplexing puzzle. He ended the 1850s with another masterpiece based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Using composite notes and included text to pull together content from existing notes, and displaying chosen content in a timeline.
Three tasks: yoking the fire-breathing bulls and ploughing in dragon’s teeth to generate an army, then getting past the fleece’s guardian dragon.
The Eclectic Light Company 