Sketch to Illustrate the Passions–Ambition 1854

Editor: So, this is Richard Dadd's "Sketch to Illustrate the Passions - Ambition," made around 1854, using watercolor and coloured pencil. What strikes me is how this tiny person is carrying this huge figure on their shoulders with such a pained, determined expression. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's a powerful depiction of the burden and perhaps the blindness inherent in ambition. Dadd, given his own history of mental instability and confinement, might be offering a critique of the pursuit of power, particularly how one person’s ambition can literally weigh down another. Who bears the brunt, and what are they sacrificing? Editor: That’s interesting. It feels like the smaller person is being used, but also that maybe they are complicit, driven by their own desire for… something? Curator: Precisely! Is it their own ambition by proxy? Consider the colonial context of 19th-century England. Ambition was often tied to exploiting other nations and peoples, creating a hierarchy where some are literally carried on the backs of others. The seemingly picturesque background becomes implicated in this power dynamic. How might viewing the artwork through that lens change our understanding? Editor: So it's not just about personal ambition, but also about how ambition functions within social and political structures, who benefits and who pays the price. Curator: Exactly. Dadd’s own marginalization, his experience as an outsider, offers a unique vantage point to comment on the larger social forces at play. Editor: I had only thought of the psychological aspect, but you've shown how it’s tied to wider societal issues. It makes the work so much more unsettling, in a good way. Curator: And perhaps prompts us to examine our own relationship to ambition and its costs.