Queen fans: the London exhibition with a surprising musical connection ends this Sunday

A London gallery visit could send you straight back to your Queen collection this weekend. Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at the Royal Academy closes on Sunday 25 October, offering a timely opportunity to explore the Victorian artist whose imaginative world reached far beyond painting and into British rock music.

The connection is The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, the title of both a Dadd painting and a song on Queen II. For listeners who know Queen mainly through their biggest singles, it is an inviting route into the band’s more fantastical early work. For regular gallery visitors, it offers a different way to approach an artist whose pictures reward close attention.

A painting that travelled into music

The exhibition’s publisher, ACC Art Books, identifies Queen among the artists inspired by Dadd’s rediscovery in the 1960s and 1970s. Time Out’s review of the Royal Academy show describes Freddie Mercury’s fascination with The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke and the painting’s place in the exhibition. That makes the music connection more than a matching title: it is part of the work’s continuing cultural life.

Queen’s official store confirms that The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke appears on Queen II, originally released in 1974. The album’s track listing places it between Ogre Battle and Nevermore on Side Black. A remixed and remastered edition arrived on 27 March 2026, with Brian May and Roger Taylor as executive producers, giving listeners another current route back into this part of the band’s catalogue.

You can explore the connection before leaving home through Queen’s official lyric video, embedded below. Listening first and then looking at the painting is a simple way to turn a gallery visit into a conversation about how musicians find ideas. There is no need to arrive with specialist knowledge of either Victorian art or Queen’s album tracks.

An artist beyond a single famous image

The Royal Academy’s catalogue introduces Dadd as a gifted student at its Schools in the late 1830s. His imaginative subjects drew on literature, while travel through the Eastern Mediterranean also shaped his experience. The exhibition listing describes a presentation of more than 100 works, so visitors should expect a broader encounter with the artist than the story of one painting alone.

Dadd’s biography includes severe mental illness and the killing of his father. He subsequently spent the remainder of his life in institutions, first Bethlem and later Broadmoor, where he continued to make art. Those circumstances are part of his history, but they should not become a shortcut for interpreting every detail of a painting or making generalisations about mental illness. The pictures deserve attention as works made by an individual artist.

One useful approach is to begin with what you can actually see: the arrangement of figures, the use of scale, the crowded details and the relationship between a title and an image. Then read the gallery interpretation. For a visit with friends, compare the first detail each person notices. Different answers can make a richly detailed painting much more approachable than a quick glance followed by the next room.

Plan the final weekend carefully

The exhibition is at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Its published run ends on 25 October, so this is a final-week reminder rather than an announcement of a new opening. Check the Royal Academy’s exhibition page for remaining tickets, admission arrangements and the opening times for your chosen day before travelling. Availability and prices have not been confirmed for this article.

The Academy’s shop information also flags changes elsewhere on its site, including the closure of the Collection Gallery from 10 October and the wider Burlington Gardens building from 27 October. It states that Burlington House, accessible from Piccadilly, remains open as usual. Make sure any travel or access arrangements relate to the exhibition’s Burlington House location.

For Energy Radio listeners looking for a cultural outing with a musical thread, the appeal is straightforward: discover the artwork, revisit the song and see how differently each medium tells a story. The exhibition deadline provides the reason to plan now; Queen’s recording gives you something to keep exploring afterwards.