The following works of art have been described as being haunted or cursed in some way.
The painting of the Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez (1746-1786) at the end of a hallway in Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas, is said to have supernatural influence over photographs taken of it. Some claim to see a skull in flash photography of the painting, [1] and according to local folklore, visitors must politely ask permission of the ghost to take a picture of the portrait, or else the photo will be ruined upon development. [2] [3]
Henrietta Nelson (1734-1816) died by falling down a flight of stairs in her home at Yaxley Hall in the English town of Eye, and was buried in a mausoleum on the property, according to her wishes. However, years later, new owners moved in and destroyed the mausoleum, moving her remains to a nearby church. [4] According to legend, Nelson has haunted the grounds ever since, trying to return home to her desired resting place. [5]
A portrait of Nelson by William Johnson has purportedly become imbued with her spirit, with her ghost following it even when moved out of the house. Viewers have reported her face in the painting changing shape, and a pale figure with identical clothing walking the grounds. [4]
Edwin Landseer's 1864 painting Man Proposes, God Disposes is believed to be haunted, and a bad omen. [6] According to urban myth, a student of Royal Holloway college once committed suicide during exams by stabbing a pencil into their eye, writing "The polar bears made me do it" on their exam paper. [7] There is, however, no university record of a death in the picture gallery. [8]
Another legend among students dating back to at least the 1960s is that anyone sitting in front of the painting during an exam will fail it. This has led to teachers covering the painting with a Union Jack when student examinations are ongoing. [8]
Legend says this 1890 portrait by Juan Luna, also known as Portrait of a Lady, is of the artist's wife, Paz, who Juan Luna murdered, possibly while working on the portrait, and that Juan was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. [9]
According to the legend, the painting is now possessed by the spirit of Paz, who brings misfortune upon its owners. Past owners have died in car crashes, been forced into bankruptcy, and experienced miscarriage, among other reported sorrows. [10]
The woman depicted in the painting is believed to be Angela Duche, a French woman who was not in fact murdered by, nor married to, the painter. [10]
According to urban legend, a particular 1899 copy of Edvard Munch's painting Death and the Child (sometimes known as The Dead Mother [11] ) is cursed. Viewers have described the horrified girl's eyes following them as they move, and hearing a soft rustling sound (usually attributed to the eponymous mother's bed sheets) when near the painting. Previous owners of the painting are said to have described the girl disappearing altogether from the canvas. [11]
Munch's mother and sister died of tuberculosis when he was a child, and memories of that trauma were a recurring motif throughout his work. [12] Munch was also influenced by the nihilist Hans Jæger, who urged him to paint his own emotional and psychological state (described as 'soul painting'), leading to his distinctive style. [13]
Since 1918 the painting has been in the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen. [11]
The paintings of Arshile Gorky, created between 1904 and 1938, are rumored to be cursed, with paintings reportedly falling from walls, catching on fire, and being visited by a black-haired ghost in a blue overcoat. On March 1, 1962, A plane with 87 passengers, 8 crew members, and 15 abstract paintings by Gorky crashed into a swamp two minutes after takeoff, killing everyone on board and destroying the paintings. [14]
According to Anthonie Holslag, a researcher studying the aftermath of the Armenian genocide, the painter's work has come to symbolize "everything we lost" for many Armenian survivors, as well as offering identity and a source of strength. [15]
Prints of The Crying Boy by 20th century painter Giovanni Bragolin were blamed for a series of house fires in the 1980s, after prints were found undamaged amidst the ruins of multiple burned houses. [16] [17]
Research at the Building Research Establishment concluded that the prints had been treated with a varnish containing fire retardant, and that the string holding the painting to the wall would be the first to deteriorate, resulting in the painting landing face down on the floor and thus being protected. [18]
Characters in Bill Stoneham's 1972 painting The Hands Resist Him are said to move or leave the painting during the night. [17] [19]
It is on display at the Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Richard King's painting Love Letters (painted circa 1990) is said to be haunted by Samantha Houston, a four-year-old girl who fell to her death in the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas where the painting hangs.
As a result, the expression of the girl in the painting is said to change [19] whenever one looks away. Guests have also reported dizziness, nausea, and feeling like they are floating or falling while viewing the painting.
The painting is a replica of an original painting by the same name by Charles Trevor Garland (1855-1906)
A signed 1990s self-portrait by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, depicting his alter-ego, "Pogo the Clown". Musician Nikki Stone purchased the painting for $3,000 in 2001, but began to regret the purchase when his dog died and his mother got cancer, which he attributed to the malicious influence of the painting. A friend offered to keep the painting, and soon after the friend's neighbor was killed in a car crash. A second friend then took it for storage, and later attempted suicide. The painting was never hung up, and was given to a local art dealer. [20]
Also known as The Hanging Man, this painting is claimed to be responsible for a series of unexplained and dangerous incidents.[ citation needed ] The painting is based on a photo taken by James Kidd in 1994.
For six months prior to the creation of the painting in 1996, the artist Svetlana Telets felt like she was being constantly watched. One day she was sitting in front of a blank canvas, when a clear vision of the final painting appeared to her. Feeling like "someone was controlling" [21] her hand, she sketched the composition for five hours, then spent another month refining the details.
After displaying it in a local art salon, multiple people successively bought the painting, only to return it to the seller after describing a figure following them in their homes and dreams. One temporary owner described white eyes appearing everywhere he looked, and returned the painting with an offer to pay back half the purchase price, fearing he might drown in the eyes if kept for any longer. [21] The piece was eventually purchased by the musician Sergei Skachkov in 2008, [22] though reportedly his wife later hid the painting, [23] after seeing a ghostly figure walk around their apartment at night. [23]
According to Archpriest Vitaly Goloskevich, Priest of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia, "A person has a spirit and a soul. There are truly spiritual works of art, and there are soulful ones. And the painting you are talking about represents just such soulful art. And it doesn't come from God.... The artist puts into the work the mood in which he was at the time of his writing. And it is not known who led the artist at that moment." [21]
An early internet creepypasta, the video from the 2000s claimed to show a portrait painted by a Japanese woman shortly before committing suicide, saying that anyone who stared into its eyes for more than five minutes would also kill themselves. [24]
The Anguished Man is a painting by an unknown artist. In 2010, owner Sean Robinson uploaded a YouTube video which included a text description of how he had "strange noises and crying", and seen the figure of a man appear. Guests reportedly had nosebleeds and experienced extreme nausea while looking at the painting. [25]
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, The Scream (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images.
Munch Museum, marketed as Munch since 2020, is an art museum in Bjørvika, Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
The Scream is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The Norwegian name of the piece is Skrik (Shriek), and the German title under which it was first exhibited is Der Schrei der Natur. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including The Scream, would go on to have a formative influence on the Expressionist movement.
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the United States. Along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Gorky has been hailed as one of the most powerful American painters of the 20th century. The suffering and loss he experienced in the Armenian genocide had crucial influence at Gorky’s development as an artist.
Madonna is the usual title given to several versions of a composition by the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch showing a bare-breasted half-length female figure created between 1892 and 1895 using oil paint on canvas. He also produced versions in print form.
Juan Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta was a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century. He became one of the first recognized Philippine artists.
The year 1889 in art involved some significant events.
The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.
The year 1892 in art involved some significant events.
The year 1895 in art involved some significant events.
The Hands Resist Him is a painting that was created by artist Bill Stoneham in 1972. It depicts a young boy and a female doll standing in front of a glass paneled door, against which many hands are pressed. According to Stoneham, the boy is based on a photograph of himself at age five. The doorway is a representation of the dividing line between the waking world and the world of fantasy and impossibilities, while the doll is a guide that will escort the boy through it. The titular hands represent alternate lives or possibilities. The painting became the subject of an urban legend and a viral internet meme in February 2000 when it was posted for sale on eBay along with a description implying that it was haunted.
Puberty is an 1894–95 painting created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Puberty has associations with both symbolism and expressionism, the former a movement from which Munch emerged, and the latter a movement in which Munch was pivotal. It is part of an informal series or cycle of paintings, prints, and images known as The Frieze of Life, that Munch created in 1890s, although he often revisited and explored themes and images from the series throughout his career. The painting was also done as a lithograph and an etching by Munch.
La Bulaqueña, literally "the woman from Bulacan" or "the Bulacan woman", also sometimes referred to as Una Bulaqueña, is the Spanish title of an 1895 painting by Filipino painter and revolutionary activist Juan Novicio Luna. Bulacan is a province in the Philippines in Luzon island and its residents are called Bulaqueños, also spelled as Bulakenyos in the Filipino language. It is a "serene portrait", of a Filipino woman wearing a María Clara gown, a traditional Filipino dress that is composed of four pieces, namely the camisa, the saya, the pañuelo, and the tapis. The name of the dress is an eponym to María Clara, the mestiza heroine of Filipino hero José Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere. The woman's clothing in the painting is the reason why the masterpiece is alternately referred to as María Clara. It is one of the few canvases done by Luna illustrating Filipino culture. The painting is displayed at the National Museum of Fine Arts.
The Parisian Life, also known as Interior d'un Cafi, is an oil on canvas impressionist painting made by Filipino painter and revolutionary activist Juan Luna in 1892. The painting presently owned by the Government Service Insurance System is currently exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts after the state pension fund transferred management of its collection to the National Museum in March 2012.
Mi Novia is a painting by Filipino painter Juan Luna. Created in the academic-style, it was in an exhibition hors concours or not for the purpose of competing for a prize. Instead it was a painting that was aimed to please the viewing public.
Inger on the Beach is a painting by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. It was created in the summer of 1889, at Åsgårdstrand and is a portrait of Munch's youngest sister Inger.
Eva Mudocci (1872–1953), born Evangeline Hope Muddock, was an English violinist, who toured Europe with the pianist Bella Edwards. She was the friend and probably lover of the artist Edvard Munch.
Self-Portrait with Cigarette is an 1895 painting by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Munch's use of the cigarette and physical decay as a rejection of societal values aroused controversy following the self-portrait's 1895 exhibition. As of 2021, the work is held by the National Gallery in Oslo.
Death and the Child is a composition created by Edvard Munch in 1889. Since 1918 it is located in the Kunsthalle Bremen. It depicts a little girl at her mother’s deathbed who is looking at the viewer in a fearful manner. A second, thus far unknown painting of the artist was discovered underneath the canvas in 2005. A new version of that motif, which refers to Munch’s family and the early death of his mother was created between 1897 and 1899 and is now hanging in the Munch Museum in Oslo. An etching was made in 1901 with this motif.