© Royal Academy
© Royal Academy
Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam
25 July 2026 to 25 October 2026
Critic score
Dadd spent 42 years as a patient in Bethlem and Broadmoor, producing paintings of extraordinary obsessive detail and invented worlds — work that inspired Cornelia Parker, Angela Carter and Queen, whose song The Fairy-Feller's Master Stroke takes its title directly from one of his paintings.
From Royal Academy
Victorian artist Richard Dadd constructed fairytale worlds and highly original works of art. His creativity never ceased – rather, it flourished from within the confines of Bethlem and Broadmoor. As a talented young artist, Dadd studied at the Royal Academy and travelled through Greece, Turkey, Syria and Egypt in search of picturesque subjects. Soon after, he started to experience psychosis and went on to spend 42 years as a patient in Bethlem and later Broadmoor Hospitals....
Read more at Royal Academy →Critic Reviews (6)
TimeOut
Annabel Downes
The Royal Academy's excellent survey rescues an often-overlooked Victorian artist from the shadow of a notorious institution
"Beyond Bedlam rescues Dadd from the shadow of that notorious institution, showing instead how memory and imagination sustained a lifetime of painting. Memories of the craggy cliffs of Rhodes reappear in one luminous landscape; 'Reminiscence of Venice' returns to sketches made during his 1842 travels; and the choppy waters near his childhood home in the naval town of Chatham are painstakingly recreated in the seascapes of the final room."
Read full review →The Standard
Melanie McDonagh
These hallucinatory wonders are truly, madly brilliant
"There were many other remarkable paintings from his years isolated from society (in theory) yet dedicated to his painting. Parricide apart, you think, if this is what madness paints, sanity may be overrated."
Read full review →The Guardian
Jonathan Jones
Richard Dadd review – can his mental illness help explain these arresting, bizarre images?
"Dadd was an interesting artist before Bedlam but became a great one in it – and a modern artist at that. In his own lonely way he overthrows the rules of art, reaching for unsettling new truths akin to those Manet and Whistler were probing, out in the “sane” world."
Read full review →The Telegraph
Alastair Sooke
The troubled artist who found solace in fairies, then murdered his father
"Although, on this evidence, his folkloric paintings can appear obscure, as well as multitudinous and hallucinatory, the originality of his vision reinforces the show's premise. This exhibition may be weird, but it's certainly compelling."
Read full review →The Independent
Mark Hudson
Some of the most haunting paintings in British art
"Now, however, at a time when we have a greater understanding of mental health, it’s possible to see that these works have their own clarity and logic in the way they construct their imaginary worlds. The exhibition doesn’t attempt to draw wider meanings from them. But if you happen to want to go to Fairyland, you won’t do it more convincingly than by looking closely at these extraordinary paintings."
Read full review →The Observer
Laura Cumming
The fantastical world of mad, bad Richard Dadd
"It is hard to believe that they would ever have been shown had he not been incarcerated, and yet we are supposed to see them independent of his illness. That way, so to speak, lies madness."
Read full review →Visit
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