THE FAIRY VISIONS OF RICHARD DADD: The Artist at Bedlam with Miranda Miller

  • The Century Club

Description

  • Something A Little Different, Theatre/Arts and Classes
  • Tickets from £12.00
  • Over 18
  • Wed, 30th Nov 2022 @ 18:30 - 20:30
  • 18:30 - 20:30

This salon is part of the Soho Series at London's exclusive Century Club

In 1842, Richard Dadd, age 25, was a promising young artist and recent graduate of the Royal Academy where professors remarked on his gentility and cheerful good nature. One year later, after a grand tour through Europe and the Middle East, Dadd returned to London suffering from symptoms we would now associate with schizophrenia. Sadly, the illness led Dadd to murder his father, attempt to kill a stranger and plot the death of the pope and the Emperor of Austria. These heinous acts, Dadd explained, were carried out on the commands of the Egyptian god Osiris.



Dadd spent the rest of his life in Victorian Aslyums, first the Royal Bethlem Hospital, or Bedlam, and then in Broadmoor. Despite medical reports describing his behaviour here as incoherent and deluded, he was able to paint and encouraged to do so. The dreamlike, fantastical compositions he completed in confinement came to earn him the accolade as “one of the most captivating British artists of the 19th century”.



In this talk, author Miranda Miller will explore Dadd's life and work, including his masterpiece The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke, now in Tate Britain. She will reveal the story of Dr Hood, the resident physician-superintendent of Bethlem during Dadd’s time there, and how his progressive policies towards the patients allowed Dadd’s talents to blossom. Miller will also uncover her reasons for writing her novel about Dadd.


Miranda Miller
Miranda has lived in Italy, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Japan before settling in North London. She teaches at the Courtauld Institute, where she has a Fellowship from the Royal Literary Fund. She has published seven novels, a book of short stories about Saudi Arabia called A Thousand and One Coffee Mornings and a book of interviews with homeless women and politicians. At the moment she is writing a novel set in London in 2016 about different generations of refugees.

Offers

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Tickets/Times

Ticket Event time Cost
The Fairy Visions of Richard Dadd
Soho Series at the Century
18:30 - 20:30 £12.00

Location

Address

The Century Club, 61 - 63, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LQ

Nearest Station

Piccadilly Circus (Tube)

Organiser

A Curious Invitation

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