Artist: Richard Dadd (1817 - 1886) Biography:
Richard Dadd was born into a large family of a chemist and a druggist in 1817. He began his training at the age of thirteen studying miniature painting, portraiture, and landscapes. He was prematurely accepted to study at the Royal Academy, but had to wait until he turned twenty. Dadd painted ancient subjects in the Neoclassical style that were executed in a style similar to that of Lawrence Alma Tadema. Dadd left England in 1842 to take a yearlong drawing trip throughout Europe and the Middle East. After returning, he began suffering from mental illness, murdered his father, and conspired to kill the pope and the emperor of Austria. He claimed that the Egyptian god, Osiris, requested all of these acts. Dadd was committed to an asylum by his family and the courts in 1843 and remained there for his last forty-three years.