Richard Dadd, The Halt in the Desert, a watercolour

This work was inspired by Richard Dadd’s expedition to Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt during 1842. His patron, the politician and businessman Sir Thomas Phillips took him as his draughtsman. In November they toured the Holy Land for two weeks. The exhausting conditions were to bring out some of the more unstable elements of Dadd's personality. From Jerusalem they visited Jordan and returned across the Engaddi wilderness. In this watercolour, he depicts the party are camped by the Dead Sea with Dadd at the far right of the fire.

Dadd (1817-1886) murdered his father after their return, supposedly at the request of the Egyptian god Osiris. He was committed to a ward for the criminally insane at Bethlem Hospital in London and around 1845, he painted this watercolour from memory and notebook sketches.

This important early work had been untraced since 1857 when it was included in the Art Treasures Exhibition held in Manchester. It was acquired by The British Museum in 1987 after being identified on the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow.