Published: 08/09/2026
‘Beyond Bedlam’ - Richard Dadd at The Royal Academy - until 25 October 2026
This is a small exhibition which reveals a creative artist absorbed in his imagination when interred in Bedlam/Bethlem/Broadmoor (after killing his father). It is interesting to consider his psychosis, his mental illness and how it affected his life and work.
Dadd draws on his travel experiences in the Mediterranean before being confined; this is evident in some of his pictures but he draws even more on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (and other Shakespeare) which inspired his fairy visions, particularly of Puck, Oberon and Titania.
His key painting is ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’ which is so intricate and intriguing that people were standing before it a long time, trying to interpret it and see every nuanced detail.
His work inspired the novelist Angela Carter and more recently the novel by Jennifer Higgie, ‘Bedlam’. The Exhibition omits medical records and any information about his crime as the focus is on his art and imaginative world.For more information, click here.
Debbi Clifton
Netherlandish Drawings at The British Museum, Room 90 (until 20 September 2026) and no charge, is an excellent preparation for those who plan to visit the Van Eyck Exhibition in the late autumn (National Gallery). The scarcity of these drawings, some using silverpoint, is because they were discarded and are also very fragile. There is the earliest known view of the sculpture garden in the Vatican, about 1532-3, with the famous Laocoon sculpture visible.
You see work by Pieter Bruegel the elder, Michiel Coxie, Paul Brill, Joris Hoefnagel’s Nonsuch Palace, 1568, showing Queen Elizabeth arriving, work by Rogier Van der Weyden and his workshop and much more.
I enjoyed thinking about the brilliance of these artists with their steady hands as they brought scenes and people to life, using the most exacting of techniques.For more information, click here.
Debbi Clifton
