From Inside to Outside: Victorian England’s Relationship with Outsider Art Through Richard Dadd
Date of Award
Spring 2021
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Visual & Performing Arts; College of Arts & Sciences
First Advisor
Elizabeth Ferrell
Second Advisor
Jill Pederson
Abstract
This thesis focuses on Richard Dadd, a Victorian-era artist best known for painting his masterworks while institutionalized in a mental hospital. It also explores Outsider art, which is defined as artwork made by people who are disconnected from the conventional art world by circumstance. Dadd lived as an artist at a time when mental illness was considered taboo and the mentally ill were not treated as functioning members of the community, but Outsider art was a point of interest. We see this contradiction in society’s perception of Dadd during and after his lifetime, where his art is successful but he himself does not receive recognition. The thesis explores this juxtaposition and Dadd’s relationship to it by examining the arts culture of Victorian England along with the conditions of nineteenth-century mental hospitals through the lens of Dadd’s life.
Recommended Citation
Bleiweiss, Kathryn, "From Inside to Outside: Victorian England’s Relationship with Outsider Art Through Richard Dadd" (2021). Capstone Showcase. 3.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2021/arts/3
From Inside to Outside: Victorian England’s Relationship with Outsider Art Through Richard Dadd
This thesis focuses on Richard Dadd, a Victorian-era artist best known for painting his masterworks while institutionalized in a mental hospital. It also explores Outsider art, which is defined as artwork made by people who are disconnected from the conventional art world by circumstance. Dadd lived as an artist at a time when mental illness was considered taboo and the mentally ill were not treated as functioning members of the community, but Outsider art was a point of interest. We see this contradiction in society’s perception of Dadd during and after his lifetime, where his art is successful but he himself does not receive recognition. The thesis explores this juxtaposition and Dadd’s relationship to it by examining the arts culture of Victorian England along with the conditions of nineteenth-century mental hospitals through the lens of Dadd’s life.