Cursed paintings and their secrets. Cursed paintings that bring death (photo) Cursed paintings and their secrets

Do not attribute unhealthy tendencies to the artist: he is allowed to depict everything.
Oscar Wilde

In July 1890, Oscar Wilde's famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in London's Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Critics trashed the novel, calling it inappropriate and immoral, but ordinary readers were delighted. To some extent, it was this novel that led to the emergence of many different stories about artists who signed agreements with the devil, about characters emerging from paintings, about the magic of the palette and brush. We will analyze a number of legends associated with “devilish” paintings and try to understand what underlies the superstitious attitude towards works of art.

A little about Dorian Gray

It is worth briefly recalling the plot of Wilde's novel. A young man named Dorian Gray is incredibly handsome. His friend, the artist Basil Hallward, paints a wonderful portrait of Gray. Dorian dreams of always remaining as young and beautiful as in the portrait - and his wish comes true. No matter how hard the young man faces, all the traces of his adventures are absorbed by the portrait of Hallward, and he himself does not change over time, does not age. The number of Gray's crimes is growing, the portrait is becoming more and more monstrous.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is still popular - not long ago the feature film “Dorian Gray” directed by Oliver Parker appeared in cinemas. The film was a success in cinemas in the UK and the USA, although it did not gain wide popularity in Russia.

Actually, the portrait by Hallward is a classic version of the “mysterious picture”. The person depicted on it changes over time; It is the movement or change of objects on canvases that is the most typical urban legend associated with a work of art.

Although it was Wilde's novel that made art gallery visitors look more closely at the details of paintings and believe in the possibility of bringing characters to life, tales of living paintings existed long before that. Even the ancient Egyptians attached serious importance to images: numerous patterns covering palaces and tombs were designed to protect the inhabitants - living and dead, and to preserve their peace. But in Egypt, such an attitude was determined by religious dogmas, and this was three thousand years ago. Today, belief in the paranormal power of the painting can only be explained by ineradicable human superstitions.

We will look at the most famous, legendary paintings and events associated with them. It is quite possible that there are grains of truth in some stories.

Hand resistance

Perhaps we should start not with ancient times, but with a modern fairy tale that stirred up the online community about ten years ago.

In February 2000, an anonymous seller put up a painting by an unknown artist called Haunted Painting for auction on eBay. It is quite possible that the appearance of this lot would have gone unnoticed if not for the comments that accompanied the image. In them, the seller told in detail a chilling story.

The “Haunting Picture” belonged to a simple Californian couple. After purchasing it, the owners hung it in their little daughter’s room, reasoning that the image of a boy and a doll would be just right there. But on the very first night, a four-year-old girl ran into her parents’ bedroom screaming that the boy and the doll in the picture were fighting each other. The parents reassured the child, but the next night the characters left the picture straight into the girl’s room - and this continued for several nights.

Look carefully at the picture. Would you hang such a canvas in a child's bedroom opposite the bed? Never in my life. So the child’s fear is justified, and the explanation is the exceptional stupidity of the parents. Moreover, despite the fact that the girl regularly ran to her mom and dad in tears at night, her father (who is also a canvas seller) did not hang the painting in another room, but installed a video camera in the nursery aimed at the painting. Screenshots from the video camera were included with the eBay listing. And they were terrifying.

Because - unless this is Photoshop, of course - in one of the screenshots the doll had a gun in her hands: she was forcing the child to walk into the darkness behind the door. On another, a doll and a boy get into a fight. The motion sensor in the room went off several times during the night. Only after this did the husband decide to sell the painting for the starting price of $199. As a result, it “went” for 1025 - quite inexpensive. Only after the sale did journalists trumpet the story of the mysterious painting to the whole world. It’s scary to even imagine how much “The Haunting Picture” costs today.

Naturally, journalists also found the author of the mysterious painting. It turned out to be Californian artist and graphic artist William Stoneham. As it turned out, a lot of interesting events happened between the time the painting was painted and the time it appeared on eBay.

Stoneham created the painting while still very young, at the age of 25 - in 1972. He took the plot motifs from a childhood photograph where he, five years old, stands next to a little girl on the threshold of an orphanage in Chicago. Stoneham grew up an orphan: he never knew his father, and his mother, a shocking artist, simply abandoned the child.

The pinnacle of Mikhail Bulgakov's work, the novel "The Master and Margarita", is considered the most terrible punishment for directors. It’s as if evil fate is pursuing those who are trying to make a movie based on the novel or stage a play. A characteristic story can be considered the film by Yuri Kara, completed in 1994. Even filmed in its entirety (although not without problems), it was never released - and never will be while the copyright battle continues. The only closed screening of the film took place in 2006 at the Moscow Film Festival, but the general public still does not have the opportunity to watch the film. Another example is the opera “The Master and Margarita” by Sergei Slonimsky, written in 1972 and banned once and for all after the first closed showing.

According to the artist, the black door represents the border between the real world and the dream world. The boy is in a dream world, the doll is his guide, and his hands are his alternative lives, remaining in the gloomy and dark real world, but yearning for the light. And the name of the canvas is not “The Pursuing Painting” at all, but The Hands Resist Him (“Hand Resistance” in the artistic translation). This is exactly what we will henceforth call Stoneham’s work.

So, in 1972, the painting was published in the art section of the Los Angeles Times, and a year later it was sold to one of the California art galleries. And that’s it, the author never saw his painting again. After some time, the painting was acquired by American actor John Marley (known for his role as Woltz in “The Godfather”). Marley died in 1984. By the way, journalists who investigated the history of the painting immediately made a mysterious tragedy out of this death - they say that the children from the painting strangled Marley in his sleep. In fact, the actor was 76 years old, and his death was not something out of the ordinary.

Marley's property was partially sold at auction. “Hand Resistance” was purchased by a certain married couple. Soon they were robbed, taking away, among other things, a painting. And after some time (about a year), the same couple again discovered the stolen canvas - in a landfill behind their own house. In general, the journalistic investigation was overgrown with a huge number of unprovable myths: the critic who wrote an article about the film in the LA Times soon died; people regularly lost consciousness right in front of the canvas in the exhibition hall, and some even had a heart attack.

The most interesting thing is that before the painting appeared on eBay, Stoneham had not painted for about 20 years. He first worked as an artist for George Lucas's film company, and then plunged headlong into computer design. Well-known games that he had a hand in are Myst and Riven, created during his work at Eidos Interactive, 3DO Corporation and other computer companies.

Today, "Hand Resistance" is in a private collection. Stoneham returned to painting - his dark surrealist paintings are in great demand, and he himself is considered one of the world's leading surrealists.

How to explain the strange history of the painting? The answer is simple. Most likely, the seller’s desire to sell his property on eBay at the maximum price. He simply embellished real events and advertised his product. Even if what is told is true, then it has already been explained by us above. A child’s imagination plus a completely unchildish picture gave birth to a new legend. And Bill Stoneham was very lucky: he suddenly became a famous, fashionable and very expensive artist.

Death of sitters

A large group of “art” legends are stories about how a painting took away part of the sitter’s soul, and he died suddenly.

Most often, in various “yellow” publications and on the Internet, the story of the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted by the great Russian artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, pops up. Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina came from a very noble family, she was the sister of the legendary duelist and traveler Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, nicknamed “The American” (sung, among other things, by Pushkin). The portrait was painted by Borovikovsky in 1797, when young Masha was only 18 years old. A beautiful young woman, full of freshness and grace, with a slight cunning in her eyes, looks at us from the canvas. Lopukhina died of consumption in 1803 - rumors spread among the people that Borovikovsky had jinxed the young noblewoman with his portrait. The newspapers made a big deal out of it. It was argued that young noblewomen, just by looking at the portrait, doomed themselves to a quick death.

The rumors were confirmed by the fact that many of Borovikovsky’s models did not live long after working with him. Thus, Princess Anna Petrovna Gagarina died at the age of 27, four years after painting her portrait, Borovikovsky painted the portrait of Catherine II two years before the death of the empress, and Paul I just a month before the latter’s assassination. However, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna “outlived” her portrait by 54 years, and she was not the only one. Therefore, it is difficult to accuse Borovikovsky of having a hard hand when depicting noble persons.

Another famous legend is associated with the expressionist Amedeo Modigliani and his only and main love, Jeanne Hebuterne. Jeanne herself was a well-known artist, but she was most famous for her work as a model for Modigliani. They met in 1917, and over the next three years the artist painted a portrait of his muse more than thirty times. A year after they met, she gave birth to Modigliani’s daughter, and in 1919 she became pregnant again - with a boy.

Journalistic legends say that Modigliani’s paintings “sucked” the life out of Jeanne and she committed suicide on April 26, 1920, being nine months pregnant. She jumped out of a fifth floor window. But no matter what the yellow newspapers say, the reason for the suicide of the young woman (she was 22 years old) lies elsewhere. On April 24, 1920, thirty-five-year-old Amedeo Modigliani died of tuberculosis - when the date of their wedding had already been set. It is unlikely that the paintings could have influenced Jeanne more than the tragic death of a loved one...

Ilya Efimovich Repin was notorious in his time. It is enough to give statistics on the death of his models. In August 1911, Repin finished work on the portrait of Pyotr Stolypin - on September 1, an attempt was made on his life, as a result of which the minister died. Repin painted the portrait of surgeon Nikolai Pirogov in November 1881 - on December 5, Pirogov died of cancer (however, this death was predicted long before work on the painting began). Repin also painted the only lifetime portrait of the composer Modest Mussorgsky - in a military hospital, where the musician was admitted after an attack of delirium tremens. Mussorgsky survived his portrait for 5 days. Among Repin's "victims" was also Kerensky (who soon fell into disgrace, although he died much later). But here it is worth remembering one point. Most often, Repin portrayed elderly people, and Mussorgsky and Pirogov - already in a dying state. Unless he actually jinxed Stolypin. Therefore, only a madman can accuse an artist of causing harm to models.

By investigating such cases, you can go much further into the past. For example, Rembrandt's favorite models were his first wife Saskia, his second (common-law) wife Hendrikje and his children. And what? Saskia died in 1642 at the age of 30, Hendrickje died in 1663 at the age of 37, and Rembrandt's three children did not even live to be a year old. Rembrandt also outlived his eldest son Titus. The connection between painting and the diseases that claimed the relatives of the great Fleming is unprovable.

Ladies - swoon!

The second direction of journalistic speculation is the influence of the painting not on the sitter, but on the viewer. Of course, one of the most obvious examples of such influence is the case of William Stoneham's painting, discussed in detail. But his work is not the only one to be attacked by the press.

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is perhaps best known for its negative impact. More precisely, not a painting, but a whole series of paintings - Munch worked on various versions of “The Scream” for many years. The Norwegian expressionist created almost all of his paintings in several copies. For example, his famous “Madonna” exists in five author’s versions.

Throughout his long life, Munch suffered from poverty and mental illness of varying severity. His affairs with women ended tragically, he had no family, and his paintings often aroused criticism and disgust from the viewer. Recognition, wealth and fame came to him, an old man, in the 1930s, when Munch no longer needed any of this. But let's get back to Scream. The picture is truly scary. Using the means of expressionism - bright colors, wavy lines, broad strokes - Munch was able to convey the inhuman horror of the hero. It’s hard to stand and look at “The Scream” for a long time: you want to quickly move on to the next picture.

Taking advantage of the sad fame of Munch himself and the talented monstrosity of his painting, people are coming up with new stories about “The Scream.” It is said that museum employees who dropped the painting or handled it carelessly were subsequently hospitalized as a result of accidents and accidents. They also said that a certain viewer, who leaned over the parapet and touched the painting (one of the versions of “The Scream” is kept in the Munch Museum in Oslo), died a week later in a fire in his house.

The funny thing is that approximately the same stories are told about Da Vinci’s La Gioconda. The stories about the Mona Lisa were started by none other than the writer Stendhal. While visiting the Louvre, he fainted from the heat and the crowd right next to a da Vinci painting. Today, Louvre workers record every case of fainting that occurs in the museum - most of them occur at the La Gioconda. However, this is easily explained: there are always so many tourists crowding around the famous canvas that it’s no wonder you lose consciousness from the stuffiness and crush.

The completely peaceful and rather boring painting by Claude Monet “Water Lilies” is surrounded by legends that it causes fires. True, it is worth noting that Monet painted a great many paintings from this series. The artist himself called them “reflection landscapes.” Lilies alone appear more than a dozen times. The main painting of the series (actually, the canvas “Water Lilies”) caught fire five times: twice in the artist’s studio, and subsequently in various galleries. Coincidences? For sure.

And again today is the day

If you type “Svetlana Taurus” into a search engine, you will find several links to information about a little-known Ukrainian artist who painted a painting “possessed by an evil spirit.” The first mention of the painting “Woman of the Rain” happened in the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” in June 2007. The short article told of a painting that had been purchased three times and returned three times to the gallery for unknown reasons.

All three buyers, after they hung the canvas in their apartments, began to see and dream about the depicted lady in a black dress and hat. The last buyer, returning the purchase, especially emphasized the terrible white eyes of the heroine. Svetlana Taurus doesn’t see anything like that in her picture. Moreover, the employees of the “Rain Woman” gallery are not too bothered either.

As with Hand Resistance, Rain Woman is an easily recognizable and unsettling image. A person with a rich imagination and not a very strong psyche subconsciously remembers such an image and constantly returns to it, “twisting” himself. After some time, a nightmare forms in the mind, having almost nothing to do with the original image on the canvas. With the same success, a person can imagine any other unpleasant thing - a corpse, a bloody scene from a movie, a monster from the game Silent Hill.

Today there is so much talk about unidentified and paranormal phenomena that you involuntarily ask the question: “Where is the lie and where is the truth?” Our world is so saturated with scary stories about what is impossible to see and hear, but you can feel for yourself: you will soon see for yourself that the most terrible and creepy things are very close - they are hidden in works of art!

Paintings are passed down from generation to generation; they bring us a piece of history and allow us to touch the beautiful. It is believed that each artistic work lives its own life and has a soul. Often museum curators, exhibition organizers, and owners of rare paintings share their fears:

• some feel like someone is watching them from the side;
• others complain that the image of a person or animal from the canvas came to them in nightmares;
• the third physically feel the negativity, pain, fear or horror emanating from the paintings.

Can paintings really hear, see and act? Get ready, the following stories will make even skeptical readers wince.

Cursed painting "Mona Lisa de Gioconda"

"Mona Lisa de Gioconda" – one of the most famous paintings in the whole world, but its beauty evokes not only admiration: in fact, Mona’s beautiful smile can cause in anyone who admired her for a long time a feeling of panic, insane fear and aggression. More than a hundred cases have already been recorded when, from one glance at the picture, people fainted or lost their human appearance, falling into hysterics. The truth about the history preceding the creation of this portrait is not known to anyone. It is only known that the great creator Leonardo da Vinci did not work on any painting for so long and diligently - for 6 whole years, and then corrected and changed details until his death. The model, Mona Lisa, left the world of the living for unknown reasons, not even reaching the age of 30.

Cursed painting "Crying Boy"

Rumor has it that the painting “The Crying Boy” is also cursed.

The story is this: Bragolin, a Spanish artist, was going to paint a portrait of a boy with tears in his eyes, and he chose his own son as the sitter. But the child could not cry as ordered and the father began to take harsh measures, forcing the boy to cry - the kid was very afraid of fire, so matches were burned in front of his face, tears rolled from the children's eyes, and the cruel adult continued his work. After prolonged torture, the boy could no longer hold on and cried out, choking with tears: “Damn you, burn yourself.” And soon the words came true, the boy fell ill with pneumonia and died a couple of weeks later, and his father burned to death for unknown reasons in his house.

"Melancholic Princess - Girl Illusion"

“Japanese Girl” is the most famous painting on social networks, accompanied by scary and mystical stories: a schoolgirl who decided to commit suicide drew this image before leaving this world.

If you look at this picture for about 5 minutes, the girl’s eyes will turn red, she will have fangs, and her hair will change color. Scary, isn't it? Believe in it, laugh or decide to check it out - decide for yourself, but we do not recommend it, since nothing is known about the consequences of this “acquaintance”.

Painting “Hands Resist Him”: a mystical story

Another “cursed” painting that became widely known was the work “Hands Resist Him”, painted by Californian surrealist artist Bill Stoneham. The artist painted it in 1972 from a childhood photograph of him and his younger sister standing in front of the house.

The painting itself depicts a boy with blurry facial features, next to him is a doll made the size of a child. They stand against the backdrop of a glass door, behind which one can see a dark sky and a large moon. Small children's hands are pressed against the glass of the door on the street side.

There are many creepy stories associated with this picture. The first art critic to see and appreciate the work soon died suddenly.

After which the painting was bought by an American actor, whose life was tragically cut short. After his death, the work disappeared from view for some time, but then one family accidentally found it in a trash heap. The parents, who picked up the terrible masterpiece, decided to hang it in the children's room. After which their little daughter began running into their bedroom in horror every night and complaining that the children in the picture were fighting. My father decided to install a surveillance camera with a motion sensor in the room, and it went off several times during the night.

After which, the family hastened to get rid of the painting, and soon Hands Resist Him was put up for online auction. A large number of letters began to arrive at the auction organizers with complaints that when viewing this picture, people began to feel bad.

As a result, the owner of a private art gallery bought the work. After the purchase, numerous letters began to arrive at his address with threats and demands to destroy the damned painting. Two American exorcists approached him with an offer of their services. And psychics, when looking at the picture, confidently report that evil emanates from it.

Painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch

Many people who in one way or another came into contact with the painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, the value of which, according to experts, is $70 million, found themselves in various unpleasant situations: they fell ill, became depressed, quarreled with loved ones, became victims of accidents, and some they even died suddenly. All these incidents gave the film “Scream” a bad reputation.

One day, a museum employee accidentally dropped a masterpiece. Some time passed and he began to have severe headaches. Migraine attacks became more frequent and more severe. The man could not stand such torment and committed suicide.

Several months passed and they decided to hang the painting from one wall to another. The worker who was doing this accidentally let go of the masterpiece and it fell to the floor. Literally a week later he gets into a terrible car accident, as a result of which he received numerous bruises and fractures.

One of the museum visitors touched the painting with his finger. Two days later, a fire started in his house, in which he burned alive.

The life of the artist Edvard Munch himself was a series of shocks and tragedies - illness, death of loved ones, madness.

He was born in 1863. When he was 5 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. Nine years later, his beloved sister Sophia dies from a serious illness. A few years later, brother Andreas passes away. Doctors diagnose the artist's younger sister with schizophrenia.

In the early 90s, Edvard Munch suffered a severe nervous breakdown and underwent electroshock treatment for a long time.

The artist was never married; thoughts of sex terrified him. He died at the age of 81. Munch left a huge creative legacy to the city of Oslo, where he lived: 4,500 sketches, 1,200 paintings and 18 thousand graphic works. But the most famous painting to this day remains “The Scream.”

Do not forget that a bad thought or word spoken in haste can do terrible things, bring about a curse or damage. Thoughts are material, and all fear can also be part of them. Evil really exists and it often lurks behind a beautiful mask.

Since ancient times, people have believed in the mystical power of paintings. Suffice it to recall the primitive tribes and their rock paintings depicting scenes of a successful hunt: by depicting prey pierced by spears, the ancient artists tried to clearly show the patron spirits what they expected from the coming day.

However, there are many legends and tales that tell of cursed paintings that bring misfortune and even death to their owners.

"The Demon Defeated" by Vrubel

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel, one of the most famous artists in Russia, distinguished himself with two “cursed” canvases. The first painting, a portrait of his beloved son Savva, was painted shortly before the child’s death. A bitter loss in the artist’s family occurred unexpectedly: Savva fell ill and died suddenly.

During the same period, Mikhail Alexandrovich painted the painting “The Defeated Demon.” Its creation coincided with a serious deterioration in the artist’s physical and mental health, including the death of his young son. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he could not tear himself away from painting the picture, each time adding more and more new touches. Moreover, one day a Demon appeared to him in a dream and demanded that the painting be called an icon, since the beautiful defeated evil should be worshiped like other martyrs.

After the painting was sent to the exhibition, Vrubel followed it and continued to make changes to his work right in the exhibition hall. Realizing that he was becoming obsessed, Vrubel agreed to treatment in a psychiatric clinic. However, the artist’s illness did not subside. Having improved his mental state and returned to his former life, he began to lose his sight and spent the last years of his life in complete darkness.

"The Crying Boy" by Giovanni Bragolin

In 1985, a series of fires occurred in Northern England. Some victims claimed that of all their property, only a reproduction of the painting “The Crying Boy,” painted by Giovanni Bragolina, an Italian artist of the 20th century, survived. In a short time, rumors spread throughout the country that the painting was cursed. It even got to the point that one of the printed publications published information that all owners of reproductions of this painting should immediately get rid of them, moreover, the acquisition and storage of copies of the painting was prohibited by the authorities.

According to legend, Bragolina used his son as a sitter for this painting, and to obtain the desired emotion, he burned matches in front of the baby’s face. This was especially cruel because the artist knew that his little son was terrified of fire.

In the end, the exhausted child shouted to his father: “Burn yourself!”, and these words were soon fulfilled. A couple of weeks later, the boy died of pneumonia, and soon the house in which his father was located burned down.

"Water Lilies" by Claude Monet

The canvas “Water Lilies” by the impressionist Claude Monet is also considered cursed: almost immediately after the painting was completed, a fire occurred in the artist’s workshop. "Water Lilies" survived.

In order to renovate his studio, Claude Monet sold the painting to the owner of one of the cabarets in Montmartre. Alas, the landscape did not decorate this entertainment establishment for long: in less than six months it turned into ashes. Did anything survive? Yes, the fire spared “Water Lilies” this time too.

Then the picture went to one of the Parisian patrons - Oscar Schmitz. And a year later his house burned to the ground: they say that the fire started in the room on the wall of which the painting hung. By the way, she survived again.

Similar stories were repeated over and over again, and in 1955 “Water Lilies” ended up in the New York Museum of Modern Art. The picture did not please the eyes of visitors for long. Three years later, the second floor, on which the painting was displayed, was seriously damaged by fire. This time, the ill-fated masterpiece also perished in the fire.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch

The painting “The Scream” by the famous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is one of the most recognizable and quoted works of art. Its cost is estimated at tens of millions of dollars, but many people would probably refuse to hang it in their home, even if they got it for free. The fact is that many accidents and coincidences are associated with this painting, which makes one think about the curse that this painting carries.

Many people whose activities were in one way or another connected with the film experienced its negative impact: severe depression, sudden death and severance of relationships with loved ones - this is just the beginning of the list.

Located in the Oslo Museum, the painting did not forgive anyone who in one way or another encroached on its safety. So, one of the museum employees once accidentally dropped a masterpiece. Soon he began to have severe headaches, which drove him to suicide.

Another museum worker also accidentally dropped a painting while hanging it from one wall to another. A few days later, he was in a terrible car accident, suffering a concussion and serious broken limbs.

As you know, museum exhibits cannot be touched. The violator of this rule, who touched the canvas with his fingers, burned alive in his house a couple of days after that.

Video - Cursed paintings TOP 5

It seems that some paintings have a monstrous and destructive power, which is projected both onto the creator of the canvas and onto the person who helped paint the painting, onto the sitter. Looking at the works of great masters, you understand that there is something sinister, inhuman in these works. Has the artist’s skill really surpassed himself? Or are these all beautiful (or not so beautiful) legends?

Famous painting Leonardo da Vinci "La Gioconda" mixed delight and admiration for the creation of the great Florentine with mysteries and fear. We won’t dwell on the famous smile of Mona Lisa, but it’s worth talking about the strange (not to say terrible) effect of the image on the viewer. This amazing ability of the canvas to make impressionable people faint was noticed in the 19th century, when the Louvre opened to public visits.
The first such person from the public was the writer Stendhal. He unexpectedly stopped at the Mona Lisa and admired her for some time. It ended badly - the famous writer immediately fainted near the painting. To date, more than a hundred similar cases have been recorded.

Leonardo's genius? After all, the great artist never worked for so long on an ordinary portrait. It would seem like an ordinary custom item. But no, the artist will not be satisfied with his work until the end of his days and will rewrite the picture for the remaining six years of his life.
All this time he will be haunted by melancholy, weakness, and exhaustion. But the main thing is that he will not want to part with the La Gioconda, he will look at it for hours, and then, with a trembling hand, begin to make adjustments again.
Louvre workers, by the way, noted that long breaks in the museum’s work lead to the tarnishing of the Mona Lisa. It gets dark, but as soon as visitors fill the halls of the museum again, the Mona Lisa seems to come to life, rich colors appear, the background brightens, the smile is more clearly visible.

During the time of Pushkin portrait of Maria Lopukhina was one of the main “horror stories”. The girl lived a short and unhappy life, and after painting the portrait she died of consumption. Her father Ivan Lopukhin was a famous mystic and master of the Masonic lodge. That is why rumors spread that he had managed to lure the spirit of his deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the salon gossips, the portrait of Maria destroyed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age...
The rumors were put to rest by the philanthropist Tretyakov, who in 1880 bought the portrait for his gallery. There was no significant mortality among female visitors. The conversations died down.

A masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was stolen in broad daylight from a museum in Oslo. A very tasty morsel: the painting costs 70 million dollars! But something tells me that the villains are unlikely to have a chance to squander this money. After all, “Scream” takes revenge on those who offend it.
The museum tells how one worker accidentally dropped a painting. From that day on, he began to have terrible headaches. The pain became more and more intense, and the guy committed suicide. And a museum visitor simply touched “The Scream” with his finger. And what do you think? In the evening, a fire started in his house and a man burned alive...

Or maybe this story is just a museum canard, spread by workers so that the painting can be returned to its original place as quickly as possible?

Probably the most famous bad picture on the Internet with the following story: A certain schoolgirl (Japanese is often mentioned) drew this picture before cutting her veins (throwing herself out of a window, taking pills, hanging herself, drowning herself in a bathtub). If you look at her for 5 minutes in a row, the girl will change (her eyes will turn red, her hair will turn black, fangs will appear).

In fact, this is a sketch by Robert Chang (a computer game artist) “The Melancholy Princess”, which, through the efforts of an unknown comedian and a bunch of inspired horror story lovers, was turned into a creepy video called “Illusion Girl”. It seems that the picture is actually moving; if you look closely at one point, it will begin to change. Accordingly, when you peer into the face, you will see something that you did not see a minute ago; this is designed to adapt your vision.She has circles under her eyes, shadows that match the color of the circles under her eyes, she breathes, blinks, smiles, her eyes water, moves away/closer, sadness appears./angerin her eyes. A kind of psychological trick under the influence of musical accompaniment.

Portrait of the Infanta Margherita

With your permission, I will not write about Velazquez’s attitude towards the infanta (8-year-old Margarita) and about his portraits. So many articles and posts have already been written on this topic that mine will obviously be superfluous, I’ll just remind you that art critics, affectionately calling them “The Master and Margarita,” often wonder how much Velázquez, loving his model, embellished the obvious features of the degeneration of the dynasty on his face this girl? Probably, at first glance, this is an idle question, but it is impossible to look at portraits of Margarita by other artists without tears. Especially when compared with the portraits of her older sister Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip and Isabella de Bourbon.

in 1996, at the Prado Museum in Madrid, in front of stunned tourists from Japan, an infanta from a Velazquez painting stepped off and... urinated on the floor! Then, naturally, she returned back to the picture.

The work of a Californian surrealist artist "Hands Resist Him" ​​by Bill Stoneham. The artist painted it in 1972 from a photograph in which he and his younger sister stand in front of their home.
In the picture, a boy with unclear facial features and a doll the size of a living girl froze in front of a glass door, to which the small hands of children are pressed from the inside. There are many creepy stories associated with this picture. It all started with the fact that the first art critic who saw and appreciated the work died suddenly.

Then the picture was acquired by an American actor, who also did not live long. After his death, the work disappeared for a short time, but then it was accidentally found in a trash heap. The family who picked up the nightmare masterpiece thought of hanging it in the nursery. As a result, the little daughter began to run into her parents’ bedroom every night and scream that the children in the picture were fighting and changing their location. My father installed a motion-sensing camera in the room, and it went off several times during the night.
Of course, the family hastened to get rid of such a gift of fate, and soon Hands Resist Him was put up for online auction. And then numerous letters poured in to the organizers with complaints that while viewing the film, people felt sick, and some even had heart attacks. It was bought by the owner of a private art gallery, and now complaints have begun to come to him. Two American exorcists even approached him with offers of their services. And psychics who have seen the picture unanimously claim that evil emanates from it.

Photo - prototype of the painting “Hands Resist Him”:

A painting known to everyone since school "Troika" Perov. This touching and sad picture depicts three peasant children from poor families who are pulling a heavy load, harnessed to it in the manner of draft horses. In the center is a fair-haired little boy. Perov was looking for a child for the picture until he met a woman with a 12-year-old son named Vasya, who were walking through Moscow on a pilgrimage. Vasya remained the only consolation of his mother, who buried her husband and other children. At first she did not want her son to pose for the painter, but then she agreed. However, soon after the painting was completed, the boy died... It is known that after the death of her son, a poor woman came to Perov, begging him to sell her a portrait of her beloved child, but the painting was already hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery. True, Perov responded to his mother’s grief and painted a portrait of Vasya separately especially for her.

Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder wrote "Adoration of the Magi" two years. He “copied” the Virgin Mary from his cousin. She was a barren woman, for which she received constant blows from her husband. It was she who, as simple medieval Dutch gossiped, “infected” the picture. “The Magi” was bought by private collectors four times. And each time the same story was repeated: no children were born in the family for 10-12 years...

Mystical evil fate haunts the famous painting Ilya Repin “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan”. This painting became the largest discovery of the late 19th century. and is recognized as a masterpiece of world painting. It was called the most optimistic and cheerful work of Russian painting. Critics wrote: this canvas contains all types of human laughter - from loud laughter to a restrained smile.

At one time, the picture also amazed the Russian Emperor Alexander III. He did not hesitate to pay 35 thousand rubles for it. This was an unheard of amount at that time. But then everything turned upside down: the painting was suddenly called cursed. What happened to her?

Repin worked on the masterpiece for more than 13 years. The prototypes of the main characters of the picture were... the artist’s friends. If only they knew how this would turn out for them! Thus, the head of Kiev Mikhail Dragomirov, who posed in the image of the chieftain Sirko, turned from a sweet, cheerful person into a binge drunkard and domestic tyrant. After a quarrel with him, two of his sons committed suicide, and his only daughter went crazy.
A brilliant scientist and philanthropist Vasily Tarnovsky (in Repin's painting - a gloomy Cossack with a donkey) went bankrupt and ended his days in a shelter for beggars. Another hero of the picture, a smiling clerk in glasses, the famous historian Dmitry Yavornitsky, was declared politically unreliable and spent several years in exile in Tashkent. After a series of these misfortunes, the frightened Repin hastily removed from the canvas the figurine of a little Cossack woman, which he painted from his own son...

"Rain Woman" Svetlana Taurus. According to the sellers, the painting has already been bought three times and then returned. Clients explain that they dream about her. And someone even says that they know this lady, but they don’t remember where. And everyone who has ever looked into her white eyes will forever remember the feeling of a rainy day, silence, anxiety and fear.

“It was interesting to observe,” says the artist, “how subtly a thing can materialize a thought and inspire it in other people.”
A few years ago the first customer appeared. A lonely businesswoman walked around the halls for a long time, looking closely. Having bought “Woman”, I hung it in my bedroom.
Two weeks later, a night call rang in Svetlana’s apartment: “Please pick her up. I can not sleep. It seems that there is someone in the apartment besides me. I even took it off the wall and hid it behind the closet, but I still can’t do it.”
Then a second buyer appeared. Then a young man bought the painting. And I also couldn’t stand it for long. He brought it to the artist himself. And he didn’t even take the money back.
“I dream about her,” he complained. - Every night he appears and walks around me like a shadow. I'm starting to go crazy. I'm afraid of this picture!
The third buyer, having learned about the notoriety of the “Woman,” simply waved it off. He even said that he thought the sinister lady’s face was cute. And she will probably get along with him.
Didn't get along.
“At first I didn’t notice how white her eyes were,” he recalled. “And then they started appearing everywhere.” Headaches began, causeless worries. Do I need it?!
So “Rain Woman” returned to the artist again. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed. It can drive you crazy in one night. The artist herself is no longer happy that she painted such horror. However, Sveta does not lose optimism yet:
- Each painting is born for a specific person. I believe that there will be someone for whom “Woman” was written. Someone is looking for her - just like she is looking for him.

Don's picture Diego Velazquez "Venus at the Mirror" bought by a Madrid merchant. And immediately a dark streak began in his life: ships with goods sank or were robbed by greedy pirates. The merchant went bankrupt. And he was forced to sell all his property. Including a painting by Velazquez.
"Venus" was bought by another merchant. And trouble came to him: a warehouse with goods in the port burned down from a lightning strike.
The Velazquez painting went to a wealthy moneylender. Three days later, thieves broke into his house. They robbed the chests of gold and stabbed the owner.
The moneylender's descendants could not sell the painting for a long time. She wandered through museums and private collections. And in 1914, Venus, exhibited at the National Gallery in London, was cut by a mad tourist.

Associated with many works of art mystical stories and riddles. Moreover, some experts believe that dark and secret forces are involved in the creation of a number of paintings. There are grounds for such a statement. Too often, amazing facts and inexplicable events happened to these fatal masterpieces - fires, deaths, the madness of the authors...

One of the most famous “cursed” paintings is “The Crying Boy” - a reproduction of a painting by the Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. The story of its creation is as follows: the artist wanted to paint a portrait of a crying child and took his little son as a sitter. But, since the baby could not cry on demand, the father deliberately brought him to tears by lighting matches in front of his face.

The artist knew that his son was terrified of fire, but art was dearer to him than the nerves of his own child, and he continued to mock him. One day, driven to the point of hysteria, the baby could not stand it and shouted, shedding tears: “Burn yourself!” This curse did not take long to come true - two weeks later the boy died of pneumonia, and soon his father burned alive in his own house... This is the backstory. The painting, or rather its reproduction, gained its ominous fame in 1985 in England.

This happened thanks to a series of strange coincidences - fires in residential buildings began to occur one after another in Northern England. There were human casualties. Some victims mentioned that of all the property, only a cheap reproduction depicting a crying child miraculously survived. And such reports became more and more numerous, until, finally, one of the fire inspectors publicly announced that in all the burned houses, without exception, the “Crying Boy” was found intact.

Immediately, the newspapers were overwhelmed by a wave of letters reporting various accidents, deaths and fires that occurred after the owners bought this painting. Of course, “The Crying Boy” immediately began to be considered cursed, the story of its creation surfaced and became overgrown with rumors and fiction... As a result, one of the newspapers published an official statement that everyone who has this reproduction must immediately get rid of it, and the authorities From now on it is forbidden to purchase and keep it at home.

To this day, “The Crying Boy” is haunted by notoriety, especially in Northern England. By the way, the original has not yet been found. True, some doubters (especially here in Russia) deliberately hung this portrait on their wall, and, it seems, no one was burned. But still there are very few people who want to test the legend in practice.

Another “cursed” painting that is widely known is the work of Californian surrealist artist “Hands Resist Him” by Bill Stoneham. The artist painted it in 1972 from a photograph in which he and his younger sister stand in front of their home.

In the picture, a boy with unclear facial features and a doll the size of a living girl froze in front of a glass door, to which the small hands of children are pressed from the inside. There are many creepy stories associated with this picture. It all started with the fact that the first art critic who saw and appreciated the work died suddenly.

The scandal began after one of the exhibitions. Mentally unbalanced people those viewing this picture felt bad, they lost consciousness and began to cry etc. It all started in 1972, when the picture was drawn by Bill Stoneham from an old photograph of him at age five found in the Chicago house where he lived at the time (first photograph).

The painting was first shown to the owner and art critic of the Los Angeles Times, who then died. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. The painting was then acquired by actor John Marley (died 1984). Then the fun begins. The painting was found in a landfill among a pile of garbage. The family who found her brought her home and already on the first night the little four-year-old daughter ran into her parents’ bedroom screaming that the children in the picture were fighting. The next night the children in the picture were outside the door. The next night, the head of the family set the video camera to be activated by movement in the room where the painting hung. The video camera went off several times.

The painting was put up for auction on eBay. Soon, eBay administrators began receiving alarming letters with complaints about deteriorating health, loss of consciousness, and even heart attacks. There was a warning on eBay, but people are notoriously curious and many ignored the warning.
The painting was sold for 1025 USD, the starting price was 199 USD. The page with the painting was visited over 30,000 times, but mostly just for fun. It was bought by Kim Smith, who lived in a small town near Chicago. He was just looking for something for his newly renovated art gallery on the Internet. When he came across "Hands Resist Him" ​​he initially thought that it was painted in the forties and would be perfect for him as an exhibit.

This would have been the end of the story, but letters now began to arrive at Smith's address. Many of them were, as before, with stories about feeling unwell after viewing the film, but there were also those who wrote about the evil emanating from it. Others demanded that it simply be burned. Even Ed and Lorraine Warren, famous for exorcizing demons at the Amityville House in 1979, offered his services.

Some even recalled the famous Satillo murder in the forested hills of California. The ghosts of two children are said to haunt the house in the hills. Psychics claimed: “We saw a boy. He wore a light T-shirt and shorts. His sister was always in the shadows. He seemed to protect her. Their names were Tom and Laura and they looked exactly like the children depicted in the picture.

Photo - prototype of the painting “Hands Resist Him”: