Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Hollley
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy be Wilson. This is one that
Speaker 1: I've had on my list for a minute, and it
Speaker 1: got on my list for one reason because I didn't
Speaker 1: know the whole story. And then it became a different story,
Speaker 1: which is that I stumbled across a piece of art
Speaker 1: by Richard Dad for reasons because it had come up
Speaker 1: in the news last year, I believe, And then I
Speaker 1: discovered the story behind him. Having already thought, oh, this
Speaker 1: is an interesting person, I wished to do an artist
Speaker 1: episode on him. So it is an artist episode, but
Speaker 1: it is also a murder episode, and it is also
Speaker 1: a madness episode. So we are talking about artist Richard Dad,
Speaker 1: whose life story is quite a ride and quite sad,
Speaker 1: so be worn there. There's some a good bit of
Speaker 1: violence in here, as well as some issues of delusion.
Speaker 1: If those are not enjoyable for you to hear about,
Speaker 1: this one might not be for you. But if you're
Speaker 1: like me and you find this utterly engaging, it's like
Speaker 1: an on ramp to our Halloween time. I actually had
Speaker 1: kind of thought that as I was reading through that line,
Speaker 1: it was like, this feels almost like something that we
Speaker 1: would do in October, but not quite. Nope. So Richard
Speaker 1: Dad was born August first, eighteen seventeen in Chatham, Kent,
Speaker 1: That's in England, born to Robert and Mary Anne Dad.
Speaker 1: His father, Robert was a chemist and his maternal grandfather
Speaker 1: was the well known shipwright Richard Martin. This younger Richard
Speaker 1: was the couple's fourth child out of eleven and as
Speaker 1: a boy, Richard attended King's School, Rochester, and he loved literature,
Speaker 1: particularly Shakespeare, and from the time he was quite young
Speaker 1: it was very obvious to everyone that he had a
Speaker 1: natural talent for drawing. By the time he was a teenager,
Speaker 1: Richard had started to really sketch with focus on the
Speaker 1: path to becoming an artist. In eighteen thirty seven, Richard
Speaker 1: was admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts, where his
Speaker 1: teachers all noted his skill as well as his gentle
Speaker 1: and kind personality, and in his third year at art
Speaker 1: school he won a medal for his life drawing. As
Speaker 1: a young man, Richard seemed poised to become one of
Speaker 1: the most prominent and perhaps even influential artists of England.
Speaker 1: He and several other artists founded a group known as
Speaker 1: the Clique. That group included such artists as William Powell Frith,
Speaker 1: who would become known for his scenes capturing English life,
Speaker 1: and Augustus Egg who was a friend of Charles Dickens
Speaker 1: and painted images that were often historical or anecdotal, and
Speaker 1: Henry Nelson O'Neill, who became known for his painting of
Speaker 1: the Indian Rebellion of eighteen fifty seven. Dad was generally
Speaker 1: seen as the leader of this group, or at least
Speaker 1: the most talented of them. Their focus was on promoting
Speaker 1: naturalistic art, and Richard really excelled at it. I will
Speaker 1: note that in watching a couple of videos with English
Speaker 1: art historians, they pronounce it the Clique, which I found
Speaker 1: quite charming. In eighteen forty two Dad illustrated the book
Speaker 1: of British Ballads by Samuel Carter Hall. And this is
Speaker 1: a substantial project. It's a two hundred and thirty three
Speaker 1: page book and about one third of that space is illustration,
Speaker 1: including frames that he created for every page. So this
Speaker 1: was really a lot of work on Dad's part. In
Speaker 1: July of eighteen forty two, Sir Thomas Phillips contracted Dad
Speaker 1: to accompany him on a grand tour of continental Europe,
Speaker 1: then through Greece, into Turkey, over to Syria and into Egypt,
Speaker 1: and then back to London. Phillips was the former mayor
Speaker 1: of Newport and this, of course was all before people
Speaker 1: could take photos of their travels, so he hired Dad
Speaker 1: to capture the trip through sketches along the way. David Roberts,
Speaker 1: a well known Scottish painter, was a friend of the
Speaker 1: family and had recommended Richard for this job. This was
Speaker 1: a pretty good gig. It was a way to see
Speaker 1: some of the world and also get paid to do it.
Speaker 1: The artist both loved and hated the trip for reasons
Speaker 1: we will explain, but more than anything, it was a
Speaker 1: trip that was life changing for Dad, and not in
Speaker 1: a good way. Dad and Phillips were not really of
Speaker 1: the same temperament when it came to travel. Whereas Phillips
Speaker 1: was sort of working through the sites they visited as
Speaker 1: a tourist, wanting to see things and then quickly move
Speaker 1: on to the next, Dad wanted to linger. Since Phillips
Speaker 1: also arranged it, presumably he had a greater sense of
Speaker 1: the schedule where his dad was just trying to capture
Speaker 1: what he saw, and he got frustrated because he felt
Speaker 1: he wasn't given enough time to really sketch things as
Speaker 1: fully as he would have liked. And then on long
Speaker 1: horse journeys he wanted to stop and sketch because he
Speaker 1: had difficulty sketching while he was riding, but his desires
Speaker 1: were not prioritized. And then at night when they camped,
Speaker 1: he found it was just too dark to do any
Speaker 1: serious work. So this whole trip was just not what
Speaker 1: he envisioned at all. In November of eighteen forty two,
Speaker 1: the group spent time in Syria and Egypt, and this
Speaker 1: was grueling travel. In December, Dad and Phillips were traveling
Speaker 1: up the Nile River on a boat when Dad started
Speaker 1: to behave oddly. He was described as having just a
Speaker 1: huge change in his demeanor and personality. Dad started to
Speaker 1: say things that were clearly delusional. He believed that the
Speaker 1: Egyptian god Osiris had been communicating with him. At the time,
Speaker 1: Phillips thought Richard was experiencing a sunstroke or heat exhaustion.
Speaker 1: As a note, there are some other versions of what
Speaker 1: happened with Dad at the end of this trip, at
Speaker 1: the very end, and some of this suggests that it
Speaker 1: was a more gradual change that got worse on the Nile,
Speaker 1: and that it may have been brought about by drug
Speaker 1: use during the journey. Even Dad said things like this
Speaker 1: at various points, but in any case, by the end
Speaker 1: of this trip, Richard definitely did not seem the same
Speaker 1: as when he had started on the journey, and as
Speaker 1: the group headed home through Europe, Dad continued to have
Speaker 1: difficulty discerning reality from his delusions. He described feeling an
Speaker 1: intense compulsion to kill the Pope when they were traveling
Speaker 1: through Italy, but his fear of the Vatican Guard was
Speaker 1: the only thing that kept him from it. Dad did
Speaker 1: not make it back to London with the rest of
Speaker 1: the Phillips party. He disappeared while they were all in Paris,
Speaker 1: and then he returned to London on his own. When
Speaker 1: Dad returned home, his odd behavior continued. He had a
Speaker 1: rented room at seventy one Newman Street, Oxford Street and
Speaker 1: started eating only a very limited diet. He would only
Speaker 1: eat eggs and only ale, and it seems like he
Speaker 1: was eating these eggs. Raw Newspaper reports state that the
Speaker 1: floor of his room was covered with eggshells, and he
Speaker 1: had huge quantities of eggs and ale on hand when
Speaker 1: the room was later examined. Dad's strange behavior did not
Speaker 1: go unnoticed, and his friends started to speak with his
Speaker 1: father about getting him some help. And although Robert Dad
Speaker 1: consulted with physicians and was advised that his son Richard
Speaker 1: needed to be in a hospital, he decided that the
Speaker 1: best thing for his son would be to go into
Speaker 1: the country for a respite from the city, where he
Speaker 1: could get plenty of fresh air and regain his health.
Speaker 1: And there are some accounts that suggest that this trip
Speaker 1: may have actually been Richard's idea, but in any case,
Speaker 1: they secured rooms in a cottage and Cobbham, where they
Speaker 1: had spent time earlier in Richard's life, and the night
Speaker 1: of their arrival they had dinner at a public house
Speaker 1: near those rooms. According to a waiter that worked at
Speaker 1: the public house where they dined, whose name was John Adams,
Speaker 1: the Dad's had stopped there inquiring about a place to
Speaker 1: sleep first, and he had told them they had no beds,
Speaker 1: but that he would check with a nearby cottage. Robert
Speaker 1: Dad had told Adams that one bed would be fine
Speaker 1: because Richard was his son. But Richard insisted that they
Speaker 1: have two beds, and so Adams went away to make
Speaker 1: these arrangements. He got two beds for them, and then
Speaker 1: he came back to the inn and told the dads
Speaker 1: that he had secured these lodgings. After dinner, Richard wanted
Speaker 1: to go for a walk, but Robert said he had
Speaker 1: walked enough that day. He ordered a whiskey and a water,
Speaker 1: and his son left. Robert and the waiter Adams chatted
Speaker 1: for a little while, and then Richard returned. At about
Speaker 1: eight forty five pm. Adams left the room to attend
Speaker 1: to some work, and when he got back at nine thirty,
Speaker 1: both of the men were gone. According to Adams, they
Speaker 1: waited until twelve thirty for the men to return before
Speaker 1: finally giving up and locking up the public house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems like because he had secured the rooms in
Speaker 1: a cop and they hadn't gone there yet after dinner,
Speaker 1: he was going to take them over there, so he
Speaker 1: was waiting, but they never should back up. And apparently
Speaker 1: at one point, as the two men went out walking
Speaker 1: together after their dinner, the elder dad stepped away from
Speaker 1: the path to urinate, and when he did, his son Richard,
Speaker 1: attacked him. He first punched him in the head, and
Speaker 1: then he stabbed him in the chest and cut his throat,
Speaker 1: and according to his own account, Richard then shouted to
Speaker 1: the sky, go and tell the great godd o Cyrus
Speaker 1: that I have done the deed which is to set
Speaker 1: him free. Coming up, we'll talk about what happened after
Speaker 1: this murder, but first we will pause for a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: On the morning following the murder, a butcher named Abraham
Speaker 1: Lister was driving a buggy through Common Park with his nephew,
Speaker 1: Charles Lister. This was about seven am, and the two
Speaker 1: of them noticed a gentlemanly looking man lying in the
Speaker 1: park on his face, with his arms over his head
Speaker 1: and without his hat. He was about thirty yards away
Speaker 1: from the road, so the Lister thought the man may
Speaker 1: have been asleep or in distress, and they stopped to
Speaker 1: check on him and offer assistance, but a prawn approach
Speaker 1: saw that the body was covered in blood. They immediately
Speaker 1: reported the find, calling on the constable, and this body
Speaker 1: was soon identified as Robert Dad. A locked knife, a razor,
Speaker 1: and Robert's hat were soon found near where the body
Speaker 1: had been found. This Constable William Dawes, believed that Robert's
Speaker 1: body had been dragged some distance, and also noted that
Speaker 1: he had money and a gold watch still in his pockets.
Speaker 1: The surgeon who performed a post mortem, named William Saunders,
Speaker 1: reported to the coroner's jury that he had found an
Speaker 1: incision on the left side of the throat, although it
Speaker 1: wasn't big enough to have caused Robert's death. He also
Speaker 1: noted bruce on the deceased's face and head, and a
Speaker 1: number of small puncture wounds on the right thumb. The
Speaker 1: lungs had been penetrated by a knife in two places.
Speaker 1: He was confident that none of the wounds could have
Speaker 1: been caused by Robert himself. After hearing testimony for several hours,
Speaker 1: the coroner's jury declared this death to be a wilful murder. Initially,
Speaker 1: after Robert's body was found, questions arose about whether someone
Speaker 1: had attacked both father and son, and if Richard might
Speaker 1: also be somewhere in the park dead. No one had
Speaker 1: seen him since that waiter at the public house had
Speaker 1: left him and his father in the dining room. Then
Speaker 1: there was speculation that this may have been a murder
Speaker 1: suicide scenario and that Richard may have gone elsewhere and
Speaker 1: taken his own life, but that theory soon died down
Speaker 1: as reports began to surface of other people who had
Speaker 1: seen and interacted with him after Adams the Waiter. Additionally,
Speaker 1: when Richard's room in London was searched, authorities found some
Speaker 1: really troubling artwork that he had made. These artworks depicted
Speaker 1: people in his life, family and friends, each of which
Speaker 1: was shown with their throat slit. Richard became the prime
Speaker 1: suspect in Robert Dad's murder. After this discovery, police put
Speaker 1: out an internal notice that read quote description of Richard
Speaker 1: Dad who was suspected of having murdered his father at
Speaker 1: Cobham Park, Kent on the twenty eighth or twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty four years of age, five feet eight inches high,
Speaker 1: dark hair, light blue eyes, thick, dark eyebrows, sallow complexion,
Speaker 1: no whiskers, dressed in a dark blue frock coat, light
Speaker 1: blue trousers. His linen marked Richard Dad or RD. Up
Speaker 1: to the time of the murder, he resided at number
Speaker 1: seventy one Newman Street, Oxford Street. Every exertion is to
Speaker 1: be used for the apprehension of the individual in question.
Speaker 1: Not long after, a bulletin went released to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on railroad stations, and another that every police division
Speaker 1: should start making inquiries at their local lodging houses. As
Speaker 1: the manhunt for Richard got into full swing, Robert Dad
Speaker 1: was buried at Gillingham Churchyard near Chatham, with Richard's brothers
Speaker 1: in attendance. According to a newspaper account published a week later.
Speaker 1: Immediately after the murder, Dad went to a tavern called
Speaker 1: Soul's Arms. Tavern was popular with artists, and he asked
Speaker 1: for a glass of water. According to the Chester Chronicle,
Speaker 1: published on September fifteenth, eighteen forty three, quote, his extraordinary
Speaker 1: appearance and excitement caused a remark from the barmaid that
Speaker 1: she thought the young gentleman was not in his right mind,
Speaker 1: which expression being overheard by him, he hurried from the house.
Speaker 1: Richard made his way to Rochester and from there took
Speaker 1: a carriage to the port at Dover. There, he stated
Speaker 1: at the Ship Hotel while working to secure passage to Frances.
Speaker 1: According to accounts from people who saw him there and
Speaker 1: noted his disheveled state, he claimed that he had fallen
Speaker 1: from a coach in an accident. He was noted as
Speaker 1: carrying large amounts of cash, and he paid ten pounds
Speaker 1: for his passage to Calais. In Calais, Dad was taken
Speaker 1: to the passport office. He told officials there that he
Speaker 1: was on pressing business. His passport was brand new, having
Speaker 1: just been issued the week before, but it was valid
Speaker 1: and he was sent on his way. He purchased new
Speaker 1: clothes in Calais and left his old, bloody suit behind
Speaker 1: at the hotel that was later seized as evidence. As
Speaker 1: newspaper reports relayed the grizzly details of Robert's murder at
Speaker 1: his son's hand, they offer up what's now a classic
Speaker 1: description of the perpetrator that's actually become kind of a trope,
Speaker 1: like this one in the Chester Chronicle quote, he has
Speaker 1: always been considered as a young man of the most
Speaker 1: mild disposition, and had ever exhibited fear links of the
Speaker 1: warmest and most affectionate attachment to his father. The unfortunate
Speaker 1: father was also devotedly attached to and proud of his son,
Speaker 1: whose abilities as an artist are stated to be of
Speaker 1: a very high order. Coverage of the murder was so
Speaker 1: extensive that the Lester Chronicle included it in an editorial
Speaker 1: that questioned whether newspapers had started to focus too much
Speaker 1: on satanic topics instead of things like literature when there
Speaker 1: isn't much political news. The article notes of Dad's story quote,
Speaker 1: this is a rare specimen. The world heard little enough
Speaker 1: of Richard Dad, the humble artist. But Richard Dad, the
Speaker 1: patricide becomes at once a man of reputation, his career
Speaker 1: worthy of a memoir, his artistic abilities of an essay,
Speaker 1: and his productions of a place in the pictorial times.
Speaker 1: Patricides are found to be a saleable commodity. Public patronage
Speaker 1: is fished for an atroci murder, being employed as bait.
Speaker 1: And as all of this was being hashed out in
Speaker 1: the papers, the English and French authorities worked cooperatively on
Speaker 1: Richard's case. This was not only because the French were
Speaker 1: helping to apprehend the suspect. It was because he also
Speaker 1: committed a violent crime in France and was arrested for it.
Speaker 1: Richard was not planning to stay in France. He was
Speaker 1: passing through it because he wanted to go to Vienna.
Speaker 1: He believed that he needed to get to Austria and
Speaker 1: assassinate Emperor Ferdinand the Ist, and as part of this journey,
Speaker 1: he had boarded a stagecoach at Fontainebleau headed from Montreux.
Speaker 1: But on this leg of the journey, Richard attacked one
Speaker 1: of the other passengers and attempted to slit his throat.
Speaker 1: Richard was quickly subdued and arrested, and his victim survived
Speaker 1: the attack. Dad would later say that he had a
Speaker 1: communication from ursa Major directing him to attack this man.
Speaker 1: French newspapers ran an account of the attack claims made
Speaker 1: by Dad. While in custody quote, it appears that the
Speaker 1: young man states himself to be the son and envoy
Speaker 1: of God, since to exterminate the men most possessed with
Speaker 1: the demon. He relates with great coolness that in the
Speaker 1: park of Lord Darnley he was seized being with him
Speaker 1: who is said to be his father, with the divine
Speaker 1: inspiration which commanded him to sacrifice him. So, in case
Speaker 1: it's unclear from the somewhat stilted phrasing of that time period,
Speaker 1: Richard thought the man he was with was not his father,
Speaker 1: but was some sort of demonic presence pretending to be
Speaker 1: or perhaps the physical body of his father, but in
Speaker 1: a state of demonic possession. When French doctors asked Dad
Speaker 1: how he felt about his actions, he stated that he
Speaker 1: had done the right thing because he destroyed an enemy
Speaker 1: of God. He similarly felt he must attack his felf
Speaker 1: traveler as something commanded by a higher power. Incidentally, that
Speaker 1: quote stating that he believed he was the son of
Speaker 1: God actually makes this belief a little unclear, because he
Speaker 1: didn't believe he was the son of the Christian God,
Speaker 1: which the paper's readers likely assumed. Dad thought he was
Speaker 1: the son of the Sun, as in the center of
Speaker 1: the solar system. His delusion wasn't as simple as that,
Speaker 1: though he would later say he was the son of
Speaker 1: the Egyptian god Osiris, sent to the Earth to cleanse
Speaker 1: it of demons. One of the interesting points of news
Speaker 1: coverage as Richard's arrest in Paris was covered was what
Speaker 1: was going to happen to him and how things would
Speaker 1: be handled between England and France. As we said, the
Speaker 1: two countries were cooperating, but they had to decide how
Speaker 1: to proceed with his charges in both France and England.
Speaker 1: But as the Essex Hertz and Kent Mercury noted in
Speaker 1: its coverage quote, should he, however, be dispatched to this country,
Speaker 1: there is not a doubt that his relatives will be
Speaker 1: spared the distress attending a public examination, with the understanding
Speaker 1: that they will immediately adopt measures for his safe keeping
Speaker 1: in the lunatic asylum. Since Dad had confessed to murdering
Speaker 1: his father, French authorities held him in an asylum while
Speaker 1: decisions were made about how to handle the case. French
Speaker 1: doctors declared him homicidal and noted that Dad would stare
Speaker 1: straight at the sun for long periods of time without blinking.
Speaker 1: Richard was prescribed cold water bats as part of his therapy,
Speaker 1: which did not improve his condition. After several months in France,
Speaker 1: he was sent back to England and that made him
Speaker 1: the first person ever extradited between the two countries. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about Dad's life after he returned to England after
Speaker 1: we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed
Speaker 1: in history class going As mentioned in the papers that
Speaker 1: we read from earlier, British authorities did not put the
Speaker 1: Dad family through a trial. There was a brief hearing
Speaker 1: and then on August twenty second, eighteen forty four, Dad
Speaker 1: was committed to Bethlum Hospital, So this is the same
Speaker 1: Bethlum that has come up on the show before. It
Speaker 1: had the nickname Bedlam because of its terrible reputation regarding
Speaker 1: the treatment of its patients, but it had been rebuilt
Speaker 1: in the eighteen teens and it was considered quite a
Speaker 1: bit reformed, although it still had problems and because of
Speaker 1: his violent past, Dad was sent to the criminal ward
Speaker 1: Though Richard Dad was cut off from the outside world.
Speaker 1: After he was allowed art materials by the warden, he
Speaker 1: continued to sketch and paint, often working from memory and
Speaker 1: also using the staff at the hospital as models. Even
Speaker 1: for women. He would use men there as stand ins
Speaker 1: to do his figure work. He also sometimes used his
Speaker 1: fellow patients as models. The staff at Bethlum often encouraged
Speaker 1: him in his work, and they even commissioned art from
Speaker 1: him from time to time. Some of these works depict
Speaker 1: events in the place of Shakespeare, even occasionally writing lines
Speaker 1: from the plays at the bottom of the works are
Speaker 1: on the back. Several of these focus on instances of
Speaker 1: violence or murder in the place, such as one titled Hatred,
Speaker 1: which depicts Henry the Six being killed by Richard of Gloucester.
Speaker 1: He also drew from classic literature and biblical stories for inspiration,
Speaker 1: including a watercolor of Cain. Just after his murder of
Speaker 1: Abel titled Murder. In eighteen fifty five, Dad created one
Speaker 1: of his most famous works called Sketch of an Idea
Speaker 1: for Crazy Jane. I shows a character from a folk
Speaker 1: ballad titled Poor Crazy Jane, who goes mad when her
Speaker 1: lover abandons her. This sketch shows Jane in the foreground,
Speaker 1: staring directly at the viewer, with her arms overhead, clutching
Speaker 1: a switch with ribbons tied onto it, and looking as
Speaker 1: though she may be dancing. She's bedraggled but not dirty,
Speaker 1: and in the middle ground ravens fly overhead. In the
Speaker 1: distant background, there's a castle. This is a striking image
Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. It's a watercolor done almost
Speaker 1: entirely in pale shades of blue gray and faint brown.
Speaker 1: It also looks almost oddly modern. It would be right
Speaker 1: at home in a modern goth or even manga inspired sketchbook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there is something about the shape of her face and
Speaker 1: the furrow of her brow that I was like, this
Speaker 1: looks like it literally looks like manga to me, like
Speaker 1: prota manga. It's very interesting. Another work that he started
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five and that really defines the painter's ouvre,
Speaker 1: is The Fairy Feller's master Stroke, which was commissioned by
Speaker 1: the hospital's head steward, George Hayden, and this painting features
Speaker 1: Oberon and Titanya from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, as
Speaker 1: well as other fairies, but the rest of the fairies
Speaker 1: are original characters created by da The Fairy Feller is
Speaker 1: a character he's poised to cut open a chestnut that's
Speaker 1: to be used in construction, presumably for a palace for
Speaker 1: the Fairy Queen, and this is considered by many people
Speaker 1: to be his masterpiece, and it has earned him the
Speaker 1: nickname the Fairy Painter, although this particular work was never completed.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty two, Bethleem had gotten a new superintendent,
Speaker 1: William Charles Hood, who was interested in further reforming the facility.
Speaker 1: He was also keenly interested in Dad's case. Dad wrote
Speaker 1: out his entire account of what happened the night he
Speaker 1: killed his father and gave it to Hood, but that
Speaker 1: account has not survived Hood's notes on Dad half, though
Speaker 1: on March twenty first, eighteen fifty four, Hood wrote quote,
Speaker 1: for some years after his admission, he was considered a
Speaker 1: violent and dangerous patient, for he would jump up and
Speaker 1: strike a violent blow without any aggravation, and then beg
Speaker 1: pardon for the This arose from some vague idea that
Speaker 1: filled his mind and still does to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: that certain spirits have the power of possessing a man's
Speaker 1: body and compelling him to adopt a particular course, whether
Speaker 1: he will or not. When he talks on this subject,
Speaker 1: and on any other at all associated with the motive
Speaker 1: that influenced him to commit the crime for which he
Speaker 1: is confined here, he frequently becomes excited in his manner
Speaker 1: of speaking, and soon rambles from the subject and becomes
Speaker 1: quite unintelligible. He is very eccentric, and glories that he
Speaker 1: is not influenced by motives that other men pride themselves
Speaker 1: in possessing. Thus he pays no sort of attention to decency,
Speaker 1: and acts or words if he feels the least inclination
Speaker 1: to be Otherwise, he is a perfectly sensual, being a
Speaker 1: thorough animal. But he also noted after describing some rather
Speaker 1: gross behaviors that Dad was smart, educated and a gifted
Speaker 1: artist and could be quite agreeable and enjoyable to talk to.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty seven, Dad was moved out of the
Speaker 1: criminal ward in Bethleem to an ordinary ward along with
Speaker 1: three dozen other residents who had been determined to be
Speaker 1: ready for a more homelike environment in the hopes that
Speaker 1: it would benefit their well being. And this was one
Speaker 1: of Woods's efforts at changing the way mental illness was managed.
Speaker 1: And these new surroundings were much less hospital like and
Speaker 1: more like a dormitory, and there were things like open
Speaker 1: windows for natural light, and pets and a parlor where
Speaker 1: the men could sit and converse. In eighteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: construction was completed on the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in
Speaker 1: Berkshire and Richard was transferred there. He had not had
Speaker 1: any violent outbursts in years at that point and he
Speaker 1: was transferred to this new facility even though it was
Speaker 1: a criminal lunatic asylum. He continued to paint there, along
Speaker 1: many of the same thematic lines that he always had.
Speaker 1: He lived and painted at Broadmoor for twenty two years,
Speaker 1: steadfastly and absolute certainty that his delusions were real. He
Speaker 1: died there in January of eighteen eighty six of lung
Speaker 1: disease and was buried on the asylum grounds. So while
Speaker 1: Dad's story has inspired other artists and writers, you can
Speaker 1: find mention of him in a lot of modern pop
Speaker 1: culture things, in many ways he remains really inscrutable. Right.
Speaker 1: We kind of buzzed through the last twenty two years
Speaker 1: of his life because there's not a lot of specific
Speaker 1: information other than paintings he made even while he was
Speaker 1: still alive. Art dealers who may have had his paintings
Speaker 1: pass through their hands often just went ahead and told
Speaker 1: buyers he was deceased so that they wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: explain that he was still being held in an asylum,
Speaker 1: and because he didn't want to see visitors most of
Speaker 1: the time. The only accounts that we have about his
Speaker 1: years past eighteen forty three, so like more than four
Speaker 1: years of his life, are from doctors who had assessed
Speaker 1: and treated him, and this has led a lot of
Speaker 1: modern doctors to debate over what mental illness he may
Speaker 1: have had, but there's no sure way to know at
Speaker 1: this point. There are entire papers written about kind of
Speaker 1: building a case file around his what we do know
Speaker 1: about him, but without him here to actually have a
Speaker 1: current assessment, it's all guesswork. Even Dad's last painting, which
Speaker 1: is a portrait of a man, remains something of a mystery.
Speaker 1: For a long time, many believed that this was a
Speaker 1: painting of the head of Broadmoor, a man named doctor
Speaker 1: William Orange who had taken over there in eighteen seventy.
Speaker 1: It's a very beautiful and detailed painting, But then photographs
Speaker 1: of doctor William Orange surfaced and it became a parent
Speaker 1: that that painting was probably misidentified because it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like him. Dad's works have been shown in exhibitions fairly
Speaker 1: frequently over the years. They're often included in shows that
Speaker 1: are curated with an eye to examining the relationship between
Speaker 1: art and mental illness or institutional experiences. People frequently point
Speaker 1: out how figures in some of his paintings look like
Speaker 1: his father or other specific people in his life, including
Speaker 1: the staff of both Bethlem and Broadmoor. One of Dad's
Speaker 1: works during his institutionalized life was a portrait labeled sketch
Speaker 1: of Mister George Bailey by Richard Dad August thirteenth, eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty five, Bethlehem Hospital, London. George Bailey was an attendant
Speaker 1: at Bethlum. He was born in eighteen twenty one, so
Speaker 1: he was four years younger than the artist, and he
Speaker 1: had been working at the facility since he was twenty
Speaker 1: eight in eighteen forty eight, so this means he was
Speaker 1: there at a time when some reforms had been made,
Speaker 1: but before William Charles Hood became superintendent, and then he
Speaker 1: was there as Hood further changed the way residents were
Speaker 1: cared for. So these two men, Bailey and Dad would
Speaker 1: likely have seen a lot of each other, as Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Munn noted in an article about Dad and Bailey for
Speaker 1: British Art Journal in twenty twenty three, Bailey was transferred
Speaker 1: to Broadmoor for his job, just six months before Richard
Speaker 1: moved there. The Bethlum facility is now the Imperial War
Speaker 1: Museum at It includes a Museum of the Mind, which
Speaker 1: features quote portraiture by and of people suffering from mental illness.
Speaker 1: Dad's work is included in the collection. A work Dad
Speaker 1: painted while at Bethlum, called Portrait of a young Man,
Speaker 1: is on loan to Bethlum from the Tate. There are
Speaker 1: other works of art from him in that collection, but
Speaker 1: that one just last year got loaned by the Tate
Speaker 1: to be part of it. I could be misremembering, but
Speaker 1: I feel like there are works by Louis Wayne in
Speaker 1: the same I would not be surprised at all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Adding to the mystery of Dad's story is that a
Speaker 1: number of works he is documented as having painted are
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. They just kind of vanished at
Speaker 1: various points in time, often when they were on loan
Speaker 1: for exhibitions. One of them, it's titled Halt in the Desert.
Speaker 1: It goes by a couple other names as well, was
Speaker 1: painted in eighteen forty five after he had been at
Speaker 1: Bethleem for a couple of years, and he painted this
Speaker 1: work from sketches and notes that he made while traveling
Speaker 1: with Sir Thomas Phillips when they had to travel at
Speaker 1: night across the Eemeddy in Israel, which is west of
Speaker 1: the Dead Sea. This is a very striking night scene
Speaker 1: in watercolor, showing the group stopped to make camp for
Speaker 1: the night. A man named Thomas Birchall owned Halt in
Speaker 1: the Desert in the eighteen fifties. He loaned it to
Speaker 1: an exhibition in Manchester in eighteen fifty seven and then
Speaker 1: to another exhibition in London in eighteen sixty two, and
Speaker 1: then the painting just dropped off off all records. It's
Speaker 1: not as though it was believed to be stolen. There
Speaker 1: just wasn't tracking in place for it, so it's whereabouts
Speaker 1: were a mystery until nineteen eighty six, and then a
Speaker 1: couple brought a painting they had in their family loft
Speaker 1: at Barnstable to the Antiques road Show to see if
Speaker 1: it was worth anything, and it was halt in the
Speaker 1: desert expert Peter Nay, who valued the work at one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand pounds, which is what the British Museum paid
Speaker 1: to acquire it, and now it remains part of the
Speaker 1: British Museum collection. It's just one of the many ways
Speaker 1: that Dad continues to pop up and surprise people. I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that some of these other works. There were two
Speaker 1: other works that had been loaned by Birchall to that
Speaker 1: London collection, and I think they also kind of vanish
Speaker 1: from the record at the same time, so they may
Speaker 1: still be out there in someone's family home somewhere. That's
Speaker 1: Richard dad who breaks my heart. Yeah, and fascinates me.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where overwhelmingly people who are
Speaker 1: experiencing delusions aren't violent and aren't a danger to other people.
Speaker 1: But he was also living in a time when there
Speaker 1: was no way to actually treat like the root cause
Speaker 1: of any delusion. The cold water bath thing was not
Speaker 1: go do it good. Yeah, yeah, and I mean it
Speaker 1: can like there are treatments and pharmaceuticals and things today
Speaker 1: which can like try to resolve some of the delusional
Speaker 1: and like that just it wasn't that didn't exist at
Speaker 1: the time. It was not an option. Yeah. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about it some more in the behind the scenes on Friday.
Speaker 1: But one of the there was a phrase that stuck
Speaker 1: out in one of the articles or books I was
Speaker 1: reading about him that mentioned specifically that part of it,
Speaker 1: given all of the things you just said about there
Speaker 1: not being a lot of treatment, was that he had
Speaker 1: such a complex layered religious delusion that even in terms
Speaker 1: of something like talk therapy, it was hard for people
Speaker 1: to like pluck out a thread and go with it
Speaker 1: because he would have wedged in something that didn't really
Speaker 1: make any sense to someone that knows any of those
Speaker 1: religions that was, you know, like they just didn't know
Speaker 1: how to even approach discussing it with him. So it's very,
Speaker 1: very heartbreaking. It's one of those He's one of those
Speaker 1: people where I feel like if he had existed today
Speaker 1: and the same thing had happened, We're on a trip.
Speaker 1: He had this whatever happened to him, whether that was
Speaker 1: you know, a sunstroke that caused a sort of mental
Speaker 1: issue or some sort of break, and he got back
Speaker 1: to London and everyone told his parents he really needs
Speaker 1: a lot of help. He may have ended up getting
Speaker 1: help and being a very prolific artist that you know,
Speaker 1: doesn't kind of fall off the historical radar. So that's
Speaker 1: why he breaks my heart. I love looking at his
Speaker 1: work because he really talented. Since this one is so sad,
Speaker 1: I have two listener males that are pretty brief, pretty light,
Speaker 1: pretty fun, and they have something in common which I
Speaker 1: was like, why have we not had this before? Okay,
Speaker 1: this is from our listener Megan or Megan, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how you pronounce it. Who writes Hi, Holly and Tracy.
Speaker 1: I have been a fan for years, complete with a
Speaker 1: missed in history PhD. I've wanted to write in for
Speaker 1: years to tell you how wonderful I think you both are.
Speaker 1: Your recent episode on Perms finally gave me an excuse
Speaker 1: to write an email. As a person born in the
Speaker 1: late eighties, my naturally thick and curly hair has been
Speaker 1: out of fashion my entire life. Okay, Holly fry aside,
Speaker 1: If you look at history, curly hair has been popular
Speaker 1: more often than straight hair, So she's just you know, historically.
Speaker 1: Writing away, Megan continues hearing about a time when perms,
Speaker 1: where the end thing is always amusing. For me, I
Speaker 1: spent most of my young life flattening it and using
Speaker 1: all the products to try and make it straight and
Speaker 1: easier to manage. In the last decade plus, I gave
Speaker 1: up and embraced the curly lifestyle. I bet your curly
Speaker 1: hair is beautiful. The thing I never knew about curly
Speaker 1: hair was that the follicle shape and orientation is what
Speaker 1: makes it curly. Having lived with curly hair my entire life,
Speaker 1: I miss this little thing that I find fascinating now
Speaker 1: that I know it. I'm so excited that we are
Speaker 1: soon going to be in spooky season, as the October
Speaker 1: episodes are frequently my favorites. I saw you in October
Speaker 1: a fe years ago in Denver and would like to
Speaker 1: request another tour N eight in Colorado. Please. Attached is
Speaker 1: my pet tax widget is my distinguished bearded poodle dude
Speaker 1: and two of my favorite geckos, Galactica the gargoyle gecko
Speaker 1: and Molder the Dalmatian spotted crested gecko. Okay, let's break
Speaker 1: down this pet situation. HM. Widget is so cute. I
Speaker 1: would approve him for a credit card. That beard makes
Speaker 1: him look very smart and very capable, and like he
Speaker 1: would manage his money in a very good way. Like seriously,
Speaker 1: I've told you guys, I have poodle fever lately. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get a dog. My life is not
Speaker 1: conducive to it right now. But I do love poodles,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that we've gotten geckos before, but
Speaker 1: these babies are beautiful. Yeah, I love geckos. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of friends over the years that have had them.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm scared to ever have them because
Speaker 1: I feel like I always hear that they're kind of delicate,
Speaker 1: and I worry that I would do something wrong and
Speaker 1: never forgive myself. I also want to mention another listener
Speaker 1: mail because our listener Cheryl also wrote and sent a
Speaker 1: picture of a gecko named Desdemona. Well, I'm like, is
Speaker 1: it gecko season? What's happening? I love it? And Cheryl
Speaker 1: just writes, very simply, I love listening to your podcast,
Speaker 1: especially behind the scenes, and here are my babies for
Speaker 1: pet Tax and so Tesdemona is very cute. She's a
Speaker 1: very sweet expression. And then there are some birds, some beautiful,
Speaker 1: very sweet looking birds. So I just loved it. It
Speaker 1: seemed like a confluence of geckos, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: to let that go unnoted. So thank you to both
Speaker 1: of you for sharing geckos with us. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love a new pet zone in our behind the
Speaker 1: scenes and in our pet Tax photos, So keep those coming.
Speaker 1: Anything that you have is great. Don't feel bad if
Speaker 1: you only have dogs and cats, we love those too.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us share your
Speaker 1: animal pictures, you can do that at History Podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com. I just forgotten the email that I've
Speaker 1: said a million times. You can also subscribe to the
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