The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke

The painting is located in the Tate Gallery, London.

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke was painted in Bedlam, a hospital for the mentally ill, where the artist was placed in 1843 after he imagined that the devil had possessed his father and proceeded to kill him. Fortunately, the attending doctors did not hinder the unwell artist from painting; in fact, they wholeheartedly supported his desire to create. As a result, the world became richer with several incredibly unusual paintings that were meticulously executed and capable of sending shivers down the spine of an attentive viewer.

Dadd spent nine years working on The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke under a magnifying glass. It is an allusion to English folklore and the works of Shakespeare iEnglish playwright (died 1616), a classic of English literature. , for which Dadd had an exceptional passion. He depicted the world of fairies just as people had always perceived them before the Romantic era, when poets enchantingly celebrated the delightful, fluttering creatures. However, in Dadd's portrayal, fairies, as expected, are spirits devoid of grace. They’re thoughtlessly cruel, capricious, beautiful, yet infinitely dangerous in the aimlessness of their illogical existences. The work bears a striking resemblance to the paintings of Bosch iDutch artist (died 1516); some consider him a precursor to surrealism and psychoanalysis, while others see his work as an encyclopedia of medieval esoterica. , who also expressed the soullessness of his demons, their detachment from the ‘supreme intelligence’ through the absurdity of their appearance and actions.

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke inspired the British writer Terry Pratchett to create his famous novel The Wee Free Men.