The Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke is a Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd

Richard Dadd was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail...

 painting. It was commissioned by George Henry Hayden, who was head steward at Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....

 at the time. He was impressed by Dadd's artistic efforts and asked for a fairy painting

Fairy painting

Fairy painting is a genre of painting and illustration featuring fairies and fairy tale settings, often with extreme attention to detail. The genre is most closely associated with the Victorian era in Great Britain, but has experienced a contemporary revival...

 of his own. 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 painting is in the Tate Britain

Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

 collection. It was presented to the Tate by the war poet Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...

 in memory of his friend and fellow officer Julian Dadd, a great-nephew of the artist, and of his two brothers who gave their lives in the First World War.

Queen's song

The Queen

Queen (band)

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

 song "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" from the band's second album

Queen II

Queen II is the second album by British rock group Queen, released in March 1974. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London in August 1973 with co-producers Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Cable, and engineered by Mike Stone....

 was born of Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...

's appreciation of the work; it makes direct reference to the painting's characters as detailed in Dadd's poem. Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...

's novel, The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men, first published in 2003, is the second Story of The Discworld book for younger readers. A sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, appeared in 2004 , a third book, Wintersmith appeared in 2006, and the fourth, I Shall Wear Midnight, was released in September...

, contains a scene inspired by the painting. The painting, the art of the insane, and Dadd are referenced in the novel "Mortal Love", by Elizabeth Hand. The work is also a central plot element in the novel The Witches of Chiswick

The Witches of Chiswick

The Witches Of Chiswick is a novel by the British author Robert Rankin, the title parodying that of The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike.-Plot summary:...

by Robert Rankin

Robert Rankin

Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies...

.Mercury was inspired to write "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" after seeing Richard Dadd's painting The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke. For the intricately-arranged studio recording, Mercury played harpsichord as well as piano, and Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets. Taylor called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the intricate use of panning in the mix.
The song, like most of the songs on the album, features medieval fantasy-based lyrics, and makes direct reference to the painting's characters as detailed in Dadd's poem, such as Queen Mab, Waggoner Will, the Tatterdemalion, and others. Apparently whenever Queen had spare time, Mercury would drag them to the London's Tate Gallery, where the painting was, and still is today.
The complex arrangements are based around a backing track of piano, bass guitar and drums, but also included harpsichord, multiple vocal overdubs and overdubbed guitar parts. The lyrics follow the claustrophobic atmosphere of the painting, and each of the scenes are described. The use of the word "Quaere" has no reference to Mercury's sexuality, according to Taylor. The band never performed this song live.

External links

• Tate online: Richard Dadd's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"
• Google Art Project: "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"
• Tate online: Sigmar Polke on Richard Dadd
• Excerpts of the poem in the context of Shakespeare from the English Department of Emory University
  Emory University
  Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
  
  
• s:Elimination of a picture and its subject - called the feller's master stroke printed text