It's the fairies not the diagnosis that won him acclaim, inspiring his two greatest works: The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, 1855-64 (main picture) and Contradiction.Oberon and Titania,1854-58 ...

Insanity today is considered primarily a medical problem. But over the centuries the notion persisted that the mad were afflicted by God—and that along with this affliction went preternatural ...

Richard Dadd, Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (1855–1864). Collection of the Tate. Fairy paintings as a genre originate largely in the work of the troubled British artist Richard Dadd (1817–86).