Interesting history of the creation of unknown paintings. The most famous paintings in the world
On December 3, 1961, a significant event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - Matisse’s painting “The Boat,” which had been hanging upside down for 46 days, was properly rehung. It is worth saying that this is not an isolated funny incident associated with paintings by great artists.
Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes
Once, one of Pablo Picasso’s acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “Sorry, but I can’t understand this. Such things simply don’t exist.” To which Picasso retorted: “You don’t even understand Chinese. But it still exists." However, many people did not understand Picasso. Once he invited the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, to paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but before he could sit down in a chair to pose, the artist announced that everything was ready.
Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, because not even 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied: “I have known you for 40 years. And all these 40 years I have been learning to paint portraits in 5 minutes.”
Ilya Repin helped sell a painting he didn’t paint
One lady bought at the market for only 10 rubles a completely mediocre painting, on which the signature “I. Repin” proudly flaunted. When the art connoisseur showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and added “This is not Repin” and signed his autograph. After some time, an enterprising lady sold a painting by an unknown artist with the autograph of the great master for 100 rubles.
The bears in Shishkin’s famous painting were painted by another artist
There is an unspoken law among artists - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite stories and strengths, but also weaknesses, so why not help each other. Thus, it is known for certain that for the painting “Pushkin on the Seashore” by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was drawn by Repin, and for Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki" the lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass and needle in his paintings, could not create bears when creating the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest.” That’s why Savitsky painted the bears for Shishkin’s famous painting.
A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings
The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Pollock's Number 5, 1948. At one auction the painting went for $140 million. This may seem funny, but the artist didn’t really “bother” with the creation of this painting: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard laid out on the floor.
Rubens encrypted the date of creation of his painting using the stars.
For a long time, art historians and scientists could not establish the date of creation of one of Rubens’s most famous paintings - the painting “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus”. The mystery was resolved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were located in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.
The Chupa Chups logo was drawn by the world famous surrealist
In 1961, Enrique Bernata, owner of the Chupa Chups company, asked artist Salvador Dali to come up with an image for a candy wrapper. Dali fulfilled the request. Today this image, although in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the company's lollipops.
It is worth noting that in 1967 in Italy, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released with illustrations by Salvador Dali.
The most expensive painting Flour brings misfortune
Munch's "The Scream" was sold at auction for $120 million and is today the most expensive painting by this artist. They say that Munch, whose life path was a series of tragedies, put so much grief into it that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.
One of the Munch Museum employees once accidentally dropped a painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches, which led this man to suicide. Another museum employee, unable to hold onto the painting, was involved in a terrible car accident just a few minutes later. And a museum visitor, who allowed himself to touch the painting, after some time was burned alive in a fire. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.
Malevich's "Black Square" has an "older brother"
“Black Square,” which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a canvas 79.5 * 79.5 centimeters, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allais, a French humorist writer, painted his “black square”. True, Allais’s painting was called “Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night.”
Christ and Judas in Da Vinci's painting have the same face
They say that the creation of the painting “The Last Supper” required titanic efforts from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist quickly found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted. One of the church choir singers took this role. But da Vinci searched for “Judas” for three years.
Once on the street the artist saw a drunkard who was unsuccessfully trying to get out of a cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to draw. Imagine the artist’s surprise when, opening up, the drunkard admitted that he had already posed for him several years ago. It turned out that this was the same singer.
Italian scientists say they have found remains that may belong to Lisa del Giocondo. Perhaps the secret of the Mona Lisa will be revealed. In honor of this, let's remember the most mysterious paintings in history.
1. Gioconda
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to mysterious paintings or mystery paintings is the “Mona Lisa”, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1505. Gruye wrote that this picture can drive anyone crazy who, having looked at it enough, begins to talk about it.
There are many “mysteries” in this work of da Vinci. Art critics write dissertations on the tilt of Mona Lisa's hand, medical specialists make diagnoses (from the fact that Mona Lisa has no front teeth to the fact that Mona Lisa is a man). There is even a version that Gioconda is a self-portrait of the artist.
By the way, the painting gained particular popularity only in 1911, when it was stolen by the Italian Vincenzo Peruggio. They found him using his fingerprint. So “Mona Lisa” also became the first success of fingerprinting, and a huge success in marketing the art market.
2. Black square
Everyone knows that the “Black Square” is not actually black, nor is it a square. It's really not a square. In the catalog for the exhibition, it was stated by Malevich as a “quadrangle”. And really not black. The artist did not use black paint.
It is less known that Malevich considered “Black Square” his best work. When the artist was buried, “Black Square” (1923) stood at the head of the coffin, Malevich’s body was covered with a white canvas with a sewn square, a black square was also painted on the lid of the coffin. Even the train and the back of the truck had black squares on them.
3. Scream
What is mysterious about the painting “The Scream” is not that it supposedly has a heavy influence on people, forcing them to almost commit suicide, but that this painting is essentially realism for Edvard Munch, who at the time of writing this masterpiece suffered from manic depression. depressive psychosis. He even recalled exactly how he saw what he wrote.
“I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fiord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature.”
4. Guernica
Picasso painted Guernica in 1937. The painting is dedicated to the bombing of the city of Guernica. They say that when Picasso was called to the Gestapo in 1940 and asked about Guernica: “Did you do this?”, the artist replied: “No, you did this.”
Picasso painted a huge fresco in no more than a month, working 10-12 hours a day. “Guernica” is considered a reflection of the horror of fascism and inhuman cruelty. Those who have seen the picture with their own eyes claim that it creates anxiety and sometimes panic.
5. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan
We all know the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan,” usually calling it “Ivan the Terrible kills his son.”
Meanwhile, Ivan Vasilyevich’s murder of his heir is a very controversial fact. So, in 1963, the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Research has made it possible to claim that Tsarevich John was poisoned.
The poison content in his remains is many times higher than the permissible limit. Interestingly, the same poison was found in the bones of Ivan Vasilyevich. Scientists have concluded that the royal family was the victim of poisoners for several decades.
Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son. This is precisely the version adhered to, for example, by the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. Seeing Repin’s famous painting at the exhibition, he was outraged and wrote to Emperor Alexander III: “The painting cannot be called historical, since this moment... is purely fantastic.” The version of the murder was based on the stories of the papal legate Antonio Possevino, who can hardly be called a disinterested person.
There was once a real assassination attempt on the painting.
On January 16, 1913, twenty-nine-year-old Old Believer icon painter Abram Balashov stabbed her three times, after which Ilya Repin had to virtually paint the faces of the Ivanovs depicted in the painting anew. After the incident, the then curator of the Tretyakov Gallery Khruslov, having learned about the vandalism, threw himself under the train.
6. Hands resist him
The painting by Bill Stoneham, painted in 1972, has, frankly, not the best reputation. According to information on E-bay, the painting was found in a landfill some time after its purchase. On the very first night that the painting ended up in the house of the family that found it, the daughter ran to her parents in tears, complaining that “the children in the painting are fighting.”
Since that time, the painting has had a very bad reputation. Kim Smith, who bought it in 2000, constantly receives angry letters demanding that he burn the painting. The newspapers also wrote that ghosts sometimes appear in the hills of California, like two peas in a pod like the children from Stoneham’s painting.
7. Portrait of Lopukhina
Finally, the “bad picture” - the portrait of Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky in 1797, after some time began to have a bad reputation. The portrait depicted Maria Lopukhina, who died shortly after the portrait was painted. People began to say that the picture “takes away one’s youth” and even “takes one to the grave.”
It is not known for certain who started such a rumor, but after Pavel Tretyakov “fearlessly” acquired the portrait for his gallery, talk about the “mystery of the painting” subsided.
Works of art that everyone knows often contain unknown, fascinating stories.
Kazimir Malevich was the sixth artist to paint a black square, Shishkin co-wrote his “Morning in a Pine Forest,” Dali suffered a serious psychosexual trauma, and Pablo Picasso survived after a bold response to the Gestapo. We admire the beauty of the greatest paintings, but the stories that happened before, during or after the painting of masterpieces often remain beyond our attention. And completely in vain. Sometimes such stories allow you to better understand the artist or simply be amazed at the quirkiness of life and creativity.
Bright Side has collected in this material the most interesting and unknown stories about great paintings.
"Black Square", Kazimir Malevich
Malevich's "Black Square" - one of the most famous and discussed works of art - is not such an innovation.Artists have been experimenting with the color “all black” since the 17th century. The first solidly black work of art called The Great Darkness was painted by Robert Fludd in 1617, followed by Bertal in 1843 with his work View of La Hougue (Under the Cover of Night). More than two hundred years later. And then almost without interruption - “The Twilight History of Russia” by Gustave Doré in 1854, “Night Fight of Negroes in a Cellar” by Paul Bilhold in 1882, a completely plagiarized “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” by Alphonse Allais. And only in 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his “Black Suprematist Square” to the public, which is exactly what the painting is called in full. And it is his painting that is known to everyone, while others are familiar only to art historians.
Malevich himself painted at least four versions of his “Black Suprematist Square”, differing in design, texture and color, in the hope of finding absolute “weightlessness” and flight of forms.
"The Scream", Edvard Munch
As with Black Square, there are four versions of Scream in the world. Two versions are painted in oils and two in pastels.
There is an opinion that Munch, who suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, wrote it several times in an attempt to take out all the suffering that gripped his soul. And it is possible that there would have been more strange little people screaming from unbearable torment if the artist had not gone to the clinic. After the course of treatment, he never again tried to reproduce his “Scream”, which became a cult classic.
"Guernica", Pablo Picasso
The huge fresco painting “Guernica,” painted by Picasso in 1937, tells the story of a raid by a Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the city of six thousand was completely destroyed. The painting was painted literally in a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours and already in the first sketches one could see the main idea.
This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief. Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, brutality, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. And the most interesting moment in connection with this picture occurred in 1940, when Picasso was summoned by the Gestapo in Paris. “Did you do this?” the Nazis asked him. “No, you did it.”
"The Great Masturbator", Salvador Dali
In a film with a strange and arrogant title even for our time, there is actually no challenge to society. The artist actually depicted his subconscious and confessed to the viewer.
The canvas depicts his wife Gala, whom he loved passionately; the locusts, which he was terrified of; fragment of a man with cut knees, ants and other symbols of passion, fear and disgust.
The origins of this picture (but primarily the origins of his strange disgust and at the same time craving for sex) lie in the fact that as a child, Salvador Dali looked through a book about venereal diseases that his father accidentally left behind.
"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581", Ilya Repin
The historical painting, which tells the viewer about a dramatic moment in the history of our country, was in fact inspired not so much by the fact of the murder of his son and heir by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, but by the murder of Alexander II by terrorist revolutionaries, and - most unexpectedly - bullfighting in Spain. The artist wrote about what he saw: “Misfortune, living death, murder and blood constitute an attractive force... And I, having probably become infected with this bloodiness, upon arriving home, immediately set to work on the bloody scene.”
"Morning in a pine forest", Ivan Shishkin
The masterpiece, familiar to every Soviet child from its breathtakingly delicious and scarce candies, belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he wanted. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky painted perhaps the best bears in the history of Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the picture “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks of the manner of painting, of the creative method peculiar to Shishkin.”
The mysterious world of art may seem confusing to the untrained eye, but there are masterpieces that everyone should know. Talent, inspiration and painstaking work on every stroke give birth to works that are admired centuries later.
It is impossible to collect all the outstanding creations in one selection, but we tried to select the most famous paintings that attract giant queues in front of museums around the world.
The most famous paintings by Russian artists
“Morning in a pine forest”, Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky
Year of creation: 1889Museum
Shishkin was an excellent landscape painter, but he rarely had to draw animals, so the figures of bear cubs were painted by Savitsky, an excellent animal artist. At the end of the work, Tretyakov ordered Savitsky’s signature to be erased, considering that Shishkin had done much more extensive work.
“Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581”, Ilya Repin
Years of creation: 1883–1885Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Repin was inspired to create the masterpiece, better known as “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son,” by Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Antar” symphony, namely its second movement, “The Sweetness of Revenge.” Under the influence of the sounds of music, the artist depicted a bloody scene of murder and subsequent repentance observed in the eyes of the sovereign.
"The Seated Demon", Mikhail Vrubel
Year of creation: 1890Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The painting was one of thirty illustrations drawn by Vrubel for the anniversary edition of the works of M.Yu. Lermontov. “The sitting demon” personifies the doubts inherent in the human spirit, the subtle, elusive “mood of the soul.” According to experts, the artist was to some extent obsessed with the image of a demon: this painting was followed by “Demon Flying” and “Demon Defeated.”
“Boyaryna Morozova”, Vasily Surikov
Years of creation: 1884–1887Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The film is based on the plot of the Old Believer life “The Tale of Boyarina Morozova”. The understanding of the key image came to the artist when he saw a crow spreading its black wings like a blur on the snowy surface. Later, Surikov spent a long time looking for a prototype for the noblewoman’s face, but could not find anything suitable until one day he met an Old Believer woman with a pale, frantic face in a cemetery. The portrait sketch was completed in two hours.
"Bogatyrs", Viktor Vasnetsov
Years of creation: 1881–1898Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The future epic masterpiece was born as a small pencil sketch in 1881; For further work on the canvas, Vasnetsov spent many years painstakingly collecting information about the heroes from myths, legends and traditions, and also studied authentic ancient Russian ammunition in museums.
Analysis of Vasnetsov’s painting “Three Heroes”
“Bathing the Red Horse”, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Year of creation: 1912Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Initially, the painting was conceived as an everyday sketch from the life of a Russian village, but during the work the artist’s canvas became overgrown with a huge number of symbols. By the red horse, Petrov-Vodkin meant “The Fate of Russia”; after the country entered the First World War, he exclaimed: “So that’s why I painted this picture!” However, after the revolution, pro-Soviet art critics interpreted the key figure in the painting as a “harbinger of revolutionary fires.”
"Trinity", Andrei Rublev
Year of creation: 1411Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The icon that laid the foundation for the tradition of Russian icon painting in the 15th–16th centuries. The canvas depicting the Old Testament trinity of angels who appeared to Abraham is a symbol of the unity of the Holy Trinity.
"The Ninth Wave", Ivan Aivazovsky
Year of creation: 1850Museum
A pearl in the “cartography” of the legendary Russian marine painter, who without hesitation can be considered one of the most famous artists in the world. We can see how the sailors who miraculously survived the storm cling to the mast in anticipation of meeting the “ninth wave,” the mythical apogee of all storms. But the warm shades dominating the canvas give hope for the salvation of the victims.
“The Last Day of Pompeii”, Karl Bryullov
Years of creation: 1830–1833Museum: Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Completed in 1833, Bryullov’s painting was initially exhibited in the largest cities of Italy, where it caused a real sensation - the painter was compared to Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael... At home, the masterpiece was greeted with no less enthusiasm, securing the nickname “Charlemagne” for Bryullov. The canvas is truly great: its dimensions are 4.6 by 6.5 meters, which makes it one of the largest paintings among the works of Russian artists.
The most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci
"Mona Lisa"
Years of creation: 1503–1505Museum: Louvre, Paris
A masterpiece of the Florentine genius that needs no introduction. It is noteworthy that the painting received cult status after the incident of theft from the Louvre in 1911. Two years later, the thief, who turned out to be a museum employee, tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery. The events of the high-profile case were covered in detail in the world press, after which hundreds of thousands of reproductions went on sale, and the mysterious Mona Lisa became an object of worship.
Years of creation: 1495–1498Museum: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
After five centuries, a fresco with a classical plot on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery in Milan is recognized as one of the most mysterious paintings in history. According to Da Vinci's idea, the painting depicts the moment of the Easter meal, when Christ notifies the disciples of imminent betrayal. The huge number of hidden symbols has given rise to an equally huge number of studies, allusions, borrowings and parodies.
"Madonna Litta"
Year of creation: 1491Museum: Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Also known as the Madonna and Child, the painting was kept in the collection of the Dukes of Litta for a long time, and in 1864 it was purchased by the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Many experts agree that the figure of the baby was painted not by da Vinci personally, but by one of his students - a pose that is too uncharacteristic for a painter.
The most famous paintings of Salvador Dali
Year of creation: 1931Museum: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Paradoxically, the most famous work of the genius of surrealism was born from thoughts about Camembert cheese. One evening, after a friendly dinner, which ended with appetizers with cheese, the artist was lost in thought about “spreading pulp,” and his imagination painted a picture of a melting clock with an olive branch in the foreground.
Year of creation: 1955Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington
A traditional plot given a surreal twist using arithmetic principles studied by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist put the peculiar magic of the number “12” at the forefront, moving away from the hermeneutic method of interpreting the biblical plot.
The most famous paintings of Pablo Picasso
Year of creation: 1905Museum: Pushkin Museum, Moscow
The painting became the first sign of the so-called “pink” period in Picasso’s work. Rough texture and simplified style are combined with a sensitive play of lines and colors, the contrast between the massive figure of an athlete and a fragile gymnast. The canvas was sold along with 29 other works for 2 thousand francs (in total) to the Parisian collector Vollard, changed several collections, and in 1913 it was acquired by the Russian philanthropist Ivan Morozov, already for 13 thousand francs.
Year of creation: 1937Museum: Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
Guernica is the name of a city in the Basque country that was subjected to German bombing in April 1937. Picasso had never been to Guernica, but was stunned by the scale of the disaster, as if by a “blow from a bull’s horn.” The artist conveyed the horrors of war in abstract form and showed the real face of fascism, veiling it with bizarre geometric shapes.
The most famous paintings of the Renaissance
"Sistine Madonna", Raphael Santi
Years of creation: 1512–1513Museum: Gallery of Old Masters, Dresden
If you look closely at the background, which at first glance consists of clouds, you will notice that in fact Raphael depicted the heads of angels there. The two angels located at the bottom of the picture are almost more famous than the masterpiece itself, due to its wide circulation in mass art.
"Birth of Venus", Sandro Botticelli
Year of creation: 1486Museum: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The picture is based on the ancient Greek myth of the birth of Aphrodite from sea foam. Unlike many masterpieces of the Renaissance, the canvas has survived to this day in excellent condition thanks to the protective layer of egg yolk that Botticelli prudently covered the work with.
"The Creation of Adam", Michelangelo Buonarotti
Year of creation: 1511Museum: Sistine Chapel, Vatican
One of nine frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, illustrating the chapter from Genesis: “And God created man in His own image.” It was Michelangelo who was the first to depict God as a gray-haired old man, after which this image became archetypal. Modern scientists believe that the contours of the figure of God and angels represent the human brain.
"Night Watch", Rembrandt
Year of creation: 1642Museum: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The full title of the painting is “Performance of the rifle company of Captain Frans Banning Kok and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg.” The painting received its modern name in the 19th century, when it was found by art critics who, due to the layer of dirt covering the work, decided that the action in the painting was taking place under the cover of night darkness.
"The Garden of Earthly Delights", Hieronymus Bosch
Years of creation: 1500–1510Museum: Prado Museum, Madrid "Black Square"
Malevich wrote “Black Square” for several months; Legend has it that a painting is hidden under a layer of black paint - the artist did not have time to finish the work on time and, in a fit of anger, covered up the image. There are at least seven copies of the “Black Square” made by Malevich, as well as a kind of “continuation” of the Suprematist squares – “Red Square” (1915) and “White Square” (1918).
"The Scream", Edvard Munch
Year of creation: 1893Museum: National Gallery, Oslo
Due to its inexplicable mystical effect on the viewer, the painting was stolen in 1994 and 2004. There is an opinion that the picture created at the turn of the 20th century anticipated numerous disasters of the coming century. The deep symbolism of “The Scream” inspired many artists, including Andy Warhol “No. 5, 1948”
This painting still causes a lot of controversy. Some art critics believe that the excitement around the painting, painted using the signature splashing technique, was created artificially. The canvas was not sold until all the artist’s other works were purchased, and accordingly, the price for a non-figurative masterpiece skyrocketed. “Number Five” was sold for $140 million, becoming the most expensive painting in history.
"Marilyn Diptych", Andy Warhol
Year of creation: 1962Museum: Tate Gallery, London
A week after the death of Marilyn Monroe, the controversial artist began work on the canvas. 50 stencil portraits of the actress were applied to the canvas, stylized in the “pop art” genre based on a 1953 photograph.
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Over time, many works of art acquire a whole trail of stories. Good or not, completely different, unusual, often creepy, they add a certain aura to the most unassuming picture. By the way, such auras are perfectly visible to bioenergetics specialists and psychics. Events are also associated with the paintings. Whether they occur as a result or simply coincide in time - we will not argue. But we will do a short review of such works and tell the history of the paintings.
One of the most notable among the “damned” is a reproduction of the painting “The Crying Boy” by the Spaniard Giovanni Bragolin. It is known that the artist painted it from his own son. But the sitter, due to his age, could not cry to order. Then the father got down to business and brought the child to the right state. He knew that the baby was terrified of fire. Therefore, the father lit matches and held them near the boy’s face, the child began to cry, and the artist got to work.
Bragolin sacrificed his child's nerves for the sake of his passion for drawing. Further, the legend says that one day the child could not stand it and wished to his father: “Burn yourself!”, and a couple of weeks later the baby died of pneumonia. His father also survived him for a short time; he burned down in his house.
Further history continued in England in 1985. At this time, an epidemic of fires began in the northern part of the country. Residential buildings are burning, completely arbitrarily, and people are dying.
The only interesting detail is that after the fire only one thing remains untouched - a certain reproduction. The number of messages is growing and reaching a critical mass.
One of the inspectors states that it is the “Crying Boy” that turns out to be a common feature of all fires.
After this, newspapers and the police receive a flood of messages describing all cases involving this reproduction. It comes to the point that it is officially proposed to get rid of this ominous picture in the house. Interestingly, the original itself is considered lost, there is only a copy.
The next “fire-hazardous canvas” is the creation of the impressionist Monet “Water Lilies”.
One after another, for an unknown reason, the creator's workshop burned, then the owners' houses - a cabaret in Montmartre in Paris, the house of a French philanthropist, the New York Museum of Modern Arts. At the moment, the painting is behaving quietly, hanging calmly in the Mormoton Museum (France).
Another “burner” is located in Edinburgh in the Royal Museum. A particularly unimpressive painting, a portrait of an old man with his arm outstretched. According to legend, the fingers on this hand move, but not everyone can see this. But those who saw it will soon die in fire.
There are two known victims of this painting - Belfast (a sea captain) and Lord Seymour. Both claimed that they saw the fingers moving and both died. The director of the museum also found himself between a couple of fires. On the one hand, the public demands to get rid of the “cursed” painting, and on the other hand, this is the main means of attracting visitors. So the old man is at ease in the museum.
No less mysteries are associated with the famous “Gioconda” by da Vinci. And here the Sami’s impressions of the picture are varied: some are fascinated by it, while others are frightened and lose consciousness. It is believed that this famous portrait has a very bad effect on the viewer. More than a hundred such events have been officially recorded (!), when museum visitors lost consciousness while contemplating the painting. One of these victims was the French writer Stendhal.
There is also information that the model Mona Lisa died relatively young, at 28 years old, and the great Leonardo remade the painting for six long years, correcting it, until his death.
Another unkind painting, “Venus with a Mirror,” was painted by Velazquez. It is believed that everyone who acquired it either died a violent death or went bankrupt...
Even museums were very reluctant to include it in their exhibitions and the picture constantly migrated. Until one day a visitor attacked her, cutting the canvas with a knife.
The next horror story, “Hands Resist Him,” was written by Californian surrealist artist Bill Stoneham. He wrote it with a photograph of himself and his sister in 1972. The picture showed a boy with a face not drawn and a girl doll, almost the size of a child, standing by a glass door. Children's hands rest against the door from the inside.
The story of troubles with this painting began with the art critic who assessed it.
He died unexpectedly and quickly. The next one was a film actor. Further there is a gap in the story; the painting was considered to have disappeared. And then a certain family discovers her in the trash heap and, of course, drags her into the house. Moreover, they hang it in the nursery. As a result, the daughter does not sleep at night, screams, and says that the children in the picture are moving and fighting. They put a camera with a motion sensor in the room, and it goes off at night.
The family decides to get rid of the painting and puts it up for online auction. Immediately, the organizers began to receive a sea of complaints that after watching the films for a long time, people became ill, even having heart attacks.
In the end, “Hands Resist Him” is bought by the owner of a private art gallery. Which now also becomes the owner of a pile of complaints against her. By the way, he also receives offers from exorcists. Psychics generally speak with one voice about the evil emanating from the painting.
This photo was the prototype for “Hands Resist Him”:
This is also Stoneham but later
Russian painting also has its oddities. Ever since school, everyone knows Perov’s Troika. The root of this trio is a little fair boy. Perov found a model for this image in Moscow. A woman with her 12-year-old son was walking down the street on a pilgrimage.
The woman lost all her other children and her husband, and Vasya became her last consolation. She really didn’t want the boy to pose, but later she agreed anyway. But after the painting was completed, very quickly, Vasya died... The woman asks to give her the picture, but the artist can no longer do it, the picture at that time is already in the Tretyakov Gallery. And Perov then paints a portrait of the boy and gives it to his mother.
Vrubel also has such hard work. The portrait of his son Savva was painted shortly before the boy’s unexpected death.
But “The Demon Defeated”…. Vrubel constantly rewrote it, changed the coloring, and the work had a very serious impact on the artist’s psyche.
He never stopped working, even after the work was placed at the exhibition... Vrubel even came to the exhibition and worked on the canvas. Bekhterev himself examined him. As a result, the relatives call the psychiatrist Bekhterev and he makes a terrible diagnosis. Vrubel is placed in a hospital, where he soon dies.
Another interesting couple of paintings.
One of them is “Maslenitsa” by Kuplin
the second belongs to Antonov.
The paintings gained particular fame in 2006, when a recording appeared on the Internet, allegedly on behalf of one student. Who stated that the copy belongs to the pen of a madman, but there is a feature in the picture that immediately indicates the author’s mental disorder. Many people start looking for this difference, but of course they don’t find it... or rather, there are many options offered, but it’s not possible to check for correctness... yet)
Another scarecrow was the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted during the time of Pushkin.
Her life was very short and almost immediately after creating the picture she died of tuberculosis.
Her father, rumored to be a Master Mason, managed to capture his daughter's spirit in a painting. And now every girl who looks at the portrait risks dying. She already has more than a dozen then young girls on her account. In 1880, the painting was bought by philanthropist Tretyakov. After this, the rumors die down.
The next “dark” painting is “The Scream” by Munch. His life was one big black streak of tragedy - the death of his mother at an early age, the death of his sister and brother, then the “schizophrenia” of another sister. In the 90s, after a nervous breakdown, he was treated with electric shock. He is afraid of sex and therefore not to marry. Munch dies at the age of 81, having handed over his paintings (1200), sketches (4500) and 18,000 photographs.
Munch's main painting was his "The Scream".
Many who had to come into contact with the painting receive a blow of fate - they get sick, quarrel with loved ones, fall into severe depression or die.
There are also some very scary stories. One employee, a completely healthy person, accidentally dropped it and as a result received attacks of headache with increasing severity, this lasted until the employee committed suicide. Another person who dropped the painting was in a car accident and received severe fractures of his arms, legs, ribs, pelvis and a concussion. And here we can include a curious visitor who poked the picture with his finger. A few days later he burns alive in his own house.
Dutchman Pieter Bruegel the Elder wrote “The Adoration of the Magi” within two years.
The model for the Virgin Mary was his cousin, a barren woman who was beaten by her husband for this. It was she who caused the bad aura of the picture. The canvas was bought by collectors four times and after that, no children were born in the families for 10-12 years. In 1637, Jacob van Kampen bought the painting. By that time, he already had three descendants, so he was not afraid of the curse.
If you look at this image for about five minutes in a row, the girl in the picture changes - her eyes turn red, her hair turns black, and fangs grow.
“The Rain Woman” was written by Svetlana Taurus in 1996. Half a year before, she began to feel some kind of attention, observation.
Then one day Svetlana approached the canvas and saw this woman there, her whole image, colors, textures. She painted the picture very quickly, it felt like someone was moving the artist’s hand.
After this, Svetlana tried to sell the painting. But the first buyer quickly returned the painting, because it seemed to her that there was someone in the apartment, she dreamed of this woman.
There was a feeling of silence, a feeling of fear and anxiety. Rain. The same thing was repeated several more times. Now the painting hangs in one of the stores, but there are no more buyers for it. Although the artist thinks that the painting is simply waiting for its viewer, the one for whom it is intended.
