Provenance
Herald St, London
Exhibited
London, Saatchi Gallery, Newspeak: British Art Now, 30 May - 17 Oct 2010
Adelaide, Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide, Newspeak: British Art Now, 30 July-23 Octobter 2011
Bournemouth, Russell-Cotes, Angels, Faeries & Femmes Fatales: Dadd to Discworld, 11 October 2013- 9 March 2014
Literature
Newspeak, British Art Now: Saatchi Gallery, pg 61, published by Booth - Clibborn Editions, 2010
Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide, British Art Now, pg 83, published by art Gallery of South Australia, 2011
Catalogue Essay
The Fairy Feller is an enlarged hand-tinted and gold-leafed photocopy of Richard Dadd’s most famous painting. Epitomising the Victorian fervour for the supernatural and occult, Dadd’s canvas shows a fantastical narrative that draws from mythology and literature. Its obsessive detail is often attributed to Dadd’s psychopathy: the painting, made during his long incarceration at Bethlem Hospital, took 9 years to complete. Spartacus Chetwynd appropriated this image to use as a prop in a performance that celebrated radical British visionaries such as William Blake and Mary Wollstonecraft. In the performance, nymphs burst from the painting and danced to music from The Seventh Seal, an Ingmar Bergman film which takes its name from the biblical prophecy of The Final Judgement.

Spartacus Chetwynd

The Fairy Feller

2003
paper, paint, papier-mâché, glue and Dutch metal
200 x 150 x 20 cm (78 3/4 x 59 x 7 7/8 in.)

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 ♠†

Sold for £6,250

Contact Specialist
Tamila Kerimova
Head of Under the Influence
+44 207 318 4065

London Auction 10 December 2014 2pm