"Damned" paintings that brought misfortune to everyone who dealt with them

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many people believe that works of art are able to preserve the energy of their creators, "remember" certain significant events, influence people's health and generally live their own lives, showing a difficult character. Believe it or not, it's up to you. But these "damned" paintings and the stories associated with them make you think that everything is not as simple as it seems.

Hands Resist Him by Bill Stoneham (1972)

One view of this picture already causes incomprehensible sensations and, in the opinion of many people, a feeling of fear: strange children, more like dolls with stone faces, terrible hands, either wanting to take the guys with them, or trying to get out of the darkness, a window, an appointment which is generally incomprehensible. Although the artist himself claimed that he did not want to frighten anyone, but copied a boy and a girl from a child's photograph, which depicts himself and his sister. The window is just a door to the world of dreams, and the doll serves as a guide to it.

Well, people would only feel horror at the sight of a picture. But the misfortunes that began to happen to all those who in one way or another dealt with the creation of Stoneham, allowed the masterpiece to acquire the dubious status of the "damned". The first victim of "Hands …" was a certain art critic, who first saw the artist's work and immediately after that suddenly died. The singer John Marley, who acquired the painting, was also gone - he died during an operation.

It is possible that the canvas could have stopped the series of misfortunes that it brought, because someone threw it into a landfill. However, the masterpiece was found by one of the local residents and decided to hang it in his little daughter's room. On the same night, the girl ran to her father in tears, claiming that the children in the picture were fighting. However, at first the man did not take these words seriously, but only became thoughtful after the child reported that strange characters were already outside the door. The frightened father put the painting up for auction.

The new owner left Hands Resisting Him in his own gallery, but immediately received complaints from visitors who claimed that strange children instilled in them fear, stalk them and caused panic attacks.

In 2000, the painting was exhibited on eBay, and a certain Kim Smith became its new owner. According to him, "irrepressible children" are sometimes cramped in the frame, and they can afford to walk around the house.

Crying Boy by Giovanni Bragolin (Bruno Amadio) (1950s)

It is impossible to look at this picture calmly, because everyone who has seen it claims that the boy cries so naturally, so piteously and at the same time he looks evil. Indeed, the sight is not for the faint of heart. Although the history of the creation of reproduction is very strange.

According to one legend, the artist depicted his own son. According to another, the model was a homeless beggar boy, over whom Bragolin could perform any cruel experiments, remaining unpunished.

Be that as it may, a rare child can cry "on request", and Giovanni wanted the portrait to be naturalistic. Therefore, knowing that the boy was afraid of fire, the artist brought a lighted match to his face. The son or the homeless child cried - Bargolin, satisfied with the idea, continued to work. Once the unfortunate sitter could not resist and shouted: "So that you burn yourself!"

We do not know how true this story is, nor the fact that two weeks after the painting was finished, the child fell ill with pneumonia and died. Soon the artist himself was gone, who literally burned down in his own workshop, along with all the paintings. Although biographers are inclined to believe that the legend with the boy was invented by Bargolin himself to arouse interest in his work, he himself is still alive and well. But, oddly enough, "Crying Boy" began to bring misfortune to all those who dared to acquire it: as soon as he was in any house, a fire immediately began. At the same time, everything died in the fire, except for the picture itself, which remained safe and sound.

In the late 80s, The Sun organized a kind of action, collected copies of the reproductions (the artist himself created 65 portraits of crying children) and burned them. Since then, according to the editorial board, the curse has come to naught. But on the global network every now and then there are messages from different parts of the world that not all copies of the painting were destroyed and continue to do their dirty deeds.

Venus with a Mirror by Diego Velazquez (1647-1651)

Innocuous at first glance, "Venus with a Mirror" also did not bring anything good to those who dared to acquire it. The first owner of the painting, who became a Spanish merchant, lost all his property. The fate of the owner of the port warehouses, who decided to contact the insidious canvas: all his goods were burned during a fire that started due to a lightning strike, except for the work of Velazquez, naturally. The third owner was also unlucky: thieves entered his house at night and killed him.

It is believed that the curse of "Venus …" lost its power when, in 1906, a visitor to the London gallery, where the exhibit was exhibited, cut a picture with a knife. The canvas was restored, but it lost its formidable power.

The Scream by Edvard Munch (circa 1893-1910)

"The Scream" is one of those pictures that you cannot look at calmly. It seems that the figure depicted on the canvas feels fear, sees something that inspires terror, and feels that the end is near.

The first "victim" of the strange masterpiece was Edvard Munch himself, who after finishing work had a nervous breakdown, and he was forced to come to his senses with the help of an electric shock in the clinic.

"The Scream" was exhibited in a museum, but one day an employee accidentally dropped the painting. After that, the man started having such headaches that he committed suicide. Another negligent worker who could not hold the exhibit in his hands died in a car accident. The curious visitor who dared to touch the "Scream" with his hands was also punished - he was burned to death in his own house.

"Unknown", Ivan Kramskoy (1883)

Have you noticed that the "damned" paintings, bringing misfortune to others, have the peculiarity of remaining unharmed? These, for example, include "Unknown" by Ivan Kramskoy. At one time, Pavel Tretyakov did not want to exhibit it in his gallery, which he probably did not regret later, given the strange stories that happened to the owners of the canvas.

The first owner of the masterpiece soon parted with his wife. But if these are flowers, then the second owner completely lost his home in a fire. As you may have guessed, only "Unknown" survived. The third "lucky man" went bankrupt. And the artist himself lost both sons a year after finishing work on the painting.

The canvas passed from hand to hand, bringing misfortune to everyone who dared to acquire it. It “calmed down” only after they found a place in the Tretyakov Gallery in 1925.

Water Lilies by Claude Monet (1916)

Monet's painting "Water Lilies" also had the ability to get out of any trouble, while sowing evil. And she began her dark path after birth: immediately after finishing work on the canvas, the artist's workshop burned down. The cause of the fire was not found, and the flame spared only the last work.

"Water lilies" were bought for one cabaret, which was also soon destroyed by fire. And again the picture managed to "escape". But after the house of the third owner - a German collector - burned down, and the canvas remained intact, the rumors about the curse did not seem fictitious. And even in the New York Museum of Modern Art, where there was a dangerous exhibit, there was a fire in which a person died.