Fairy Fellers’ Master-Stroke (1855-64) by Richard Dadd
Dadd worked on the painting for nine years, paying microscopic attention to detail and using a layering technique to produce near-3D results. Although it is generally regarded as his most important work, Dadd himself considered the painting to be unfinished (the background of the lower left corner is only sketched in), and as such added the suffix of “Quasi” to its title.
In order to give context to his work, Dadd subsequently wrote a strange poem by the name of Elimination of a Picture its subject called The Fellers’ Master Stroke in which each of the characters appearing in the picture is given a name and purpose—including myriad references to old English folklore and Shakespeare—in an apparent attempt to show that the painting’s unique composition was not merely a product of random, wild inspiration.
The Queen song The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke was born of Freddie Mercury’s appreciation of the work; it makes direct reference to the painting’s characters as detailed in Dadd’s poem.
