What does the phrase "man proposes, God disposes" mean? Myth or curse? Stories of creepy pictures.

K: Paintings of 1864

"Man proposes, God disposes"- painting English artist Edwin Henry Landseer, created in 1864 and dedicated to the missing Franklin expedition.

The painting, created in 1864, is dedicated to the tragic Franklin expedition of 1845-1847. The work depicts two polar bears, caught near the remains of a crashed ship, one of which is vomiting british ship ensign red ensign, and the other one gnaws at a human rib. The title of the painting uses popular expression in Latin Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit from the Catholic theological treatise of Thomas of Kempis "On the Imitation of Christ" (Book I, chapter 19). Together with the title, the work carries not only the image tragic fate expedition, but also touches upon the issue of confrontation between man and God. The painting can be seen as a symbolic depiction of the crisis of British triumphalism and imperialism. mid-nineteenth century, belief in the omnipotence of science, industrialization and man, the impotence of people against the forces of nature.

In 1864 the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. Jane Franklin, the widow of John Franklin, was invited to the exhibition, but she tried to avoid "meeting" with the painting and did not go into the room where the work was hung out. The Art Journal (English)Russian appreciated the "poetry, pathos and horror" of the picture and its "tragic grandeur"; in the publication of the magazine "Atheneum" the epic work was noted; The Saturday Review praised the "elevation of feelings" in the work. At the same time, the opinion of some critics about the picture was negative, it was said about the artist's bad taste, disgusting literalism and vulgar melodrama.

Since 1881 the painting has been at King's College Holloway, University of London. Since the 1920s, exams have been held in the room where the work is located. There is a superstition among college students that the picture promises bad luck during exams - a student sitting near it during exams goes crazy. Since the 1970s, the picture has been hung with the British flag during the exams: the tradition arose after one of the students refused to sit near the picture and, in horror, began to look for something to cover it with; this thing turned out to be a large British flag.

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Notes

A passage describing Man proposes and God disposes

The woman nodded confidently, but suddenly something in her face changed and it was clear that she was very confused.
– No... I can't remember him... Is this possible? – already almost frightened she said.
- And your son? Can you remember? Or brother? Can you remember your brother? Stella asked, addressing both at once.
Mother and daughter shook their heads.
Usually such a cheerful, Stella's face looked very preoccupied, probably could not understand what was happening here. I literally felt the intense work of her living and such an unusual brain.
- I figured it out! I came up with! Stella suddenly squealed happily. - We will "dress" your images and go for a "walk". If they are somewhere, they will see us. It's true?
I liked the idea, and all that remained was to mentally “change clothes” and go in search.
“Oh, please, can I stay with him until you return?” - the little girl stubbornly did not forget her desire. - And what is his name?
“Not yet,” Stella smiled at her. - and you?
- Leah. - The little girl answered. "Why are you still glowing?" We saw them once, but everyone said they were angels... And then who are you?
- We are the same girls as you, only we live "above".
- And where is the top? Little Leah did not let up.
“Unfortunately, you can’t go there,” Stella tried to somehow explain, having got into difficulty. - Do you want me to show you?
The little girl jumped for joy. Stella took her by the hand and opened her amazing fantasy world in front of her, where everything seemed so bright and happy that she didn’t want to believe it.
Leah's eyes became like two huge round saucers:
- Oh, what a beauty! .... And what is this - paradise? Oh ma-amochki! .. - the girl squealed enthusiastically, but very quietly, as if afraid to frighten off this incredible vision. - And who lives there? Oh, look, what a cloud!.. And golden rain! Does this happen?..
Have you ever seen a red dragon? Leah shook her head in disapproval. - Well, you see, but it happens to me, because this is my world.
“Then what are you, God?” "But God can't be a girl, can he?" And then who are you?
Questions rained down from her in an avalanche and Stella, not having time to answer them, laughed.
Not busy with “questions and answers”, I began to slowly look around and was completely amazed by the opening up to me. extraordinary world... It was indeed a real "transparent" world. Everything around sparkled and shimmered with some kind of blue, ghostly light, from which (as it should) for some reason did not become cold, but on the contrary - it warmed with some unusually deep, soul-piercing warmth. Around me, from time to time, transparent human figures floated, now condensing, now becoming transparent, like a luminous mist... This world was very beautiful, but somehow unstable. It seemed that he was changing all the time, not exactly knowing how to stay forever ...
- Well, are you ready to "walk"? Stella's cheerful voice pulled me out of my dreams.
– Where are we going? Waking up, I asked.
Let's go look for the missing! The little girl smiled cheerfully.
- Dear girls, will you still allow me to guard your dragon while you are walking? - not wanting to forget him, downcast her round eyes, asked little Leah.
- All right, watch out. - Graciously allowed Stella. “Just don’t give it to anyone, otherwise he’s still a baby and can get scared.”

Art, since the appearance on the walls of the cave primitive man, excited and influenced humanity. As soon as the artist's brush touches the canvas, the real process of creation begins. The author does not just do his job, he puts his soul and a particle of himself into his work. Streams of energy seem to descend from the tips of the fingers, move along the brush and stop on the canvas. That is why we literally feel that the paintings of real artists look and feel "as if alive". Plots and images can cause a person to cry, depression, disgust, or vice versa, a feeling of joy and happiness.
However, the question arises: Can paintings influence our lives in general?
In this article, you will get acquainted with the stories of paintings that can cause a slight chill. Even the photographs of some of them evoke, if not horror, then certainly cause discomfort. If so, we have warned you!

1. "Hands resist him"

Let's start with perhaps the most infamous painting - "The Hands Resist Him", by Bill Stoneham. She became so "famous" that she was called "the most ghostly picture in the world."

In 1972, while Stoneham was living with his wife in California, he was under contract to the Charles Feingarten Gallery. According to the contract, the artist had to create two paintings per month. The deadline for the work was coming to an end, and Stoneham decided to paint a picture, taking as a basis his old photograph, where he was 5 years old. He named this picture in honor of a poem that his wife wrote for Stoneham himself (the poem was that Bill was adopted as a child, and he never knew anything about his biological parents). The result is an image depicting a boy, next to which stands a creepy doll with no eyes. According to Stoneham, the boy is himself at the age of 5, and the doorway in the picture is a barrier between the real world(where the hands are depicted) and the world of dreams. At the same time, the doll is a guide to the fantasy world. As for the hands, the artist cryptically said: “Hands could mean anything ... But, you will definitely have a question: Are these hands without a body? The body was dismembered, and the hands themselves? Or are they still in place, with the body?

The painting was exhibited at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills, California. This painting was featured in the Los Angeles Times in an article by art historian Henry Seldis. At this exhibition, the painting attracted the attention of actor John Marley, who played the role of Jack Woltz in " Godfather". He liked it so much that he decided to buy it. Within one year after the creation of the picture, three people died at once: art historian Seldis, gallery owner Feingarten and actor Marley. After that, the picture seemed to have disappeared, until in 2000 the couple found it left by someone behind a brewery (which, by the way, was turned into an art space) in the same California.

They took this picture for themselves, considering it a good acquisition. In February of the same year, they put it up for sale on eBay, explaining that this picture carries horror in itself, and in general it is cursed and ghosts come out of it. Their announcement was more like a warning than an announcement. Completely written with capital letters and erroneously, this ad included a mini-story about why they decided to get rid of the painting. According to the couple, their 4-year-old daughter said she saw the children from the painting come into the room at night and start fighting. The woman herself (the girl's mother) does not believe in UFOs and similar things, but her husband decided to install a camera. The camera filmed three nights in a row. In the end, the couple received pictures confirming the words of their daughter. In a photo they posted on eBay, the doll allegedly holds a gun while threatening the boy. The couple also asked in their announcement not to make a claim after the acquisition of the painting.

This ad has been viewed over 30,000 times. In the comments, people wrote that they felt bad as soon as they saw these photos. Some tried to print them, but the printer gave an error or broke. Some claimed that when viewing the photos, they felt warm air currents that enveloped them, whispering various things in their ears with children's voices. And someone even set fire to sage to cleanse their living space of evil spirits after browsing an eBay page.

As a result, the painting was bought by Kim Smith for $1025, the owner of the Perception Gallery in Michigan. A year later, Smith was contacted by a paranormal website and asked if anything paranormal had happened since buying this painting or not.

Smith, in her response, said that the picture itself did not bring her any failures or troubles, but the letters from people with advice on how to clean the room, how to protect yourself with the help of a shaman, definitely drove her crazy.
Gallery workers turned to the artist himself with a question about the gun in the hands of the doll. The artist confidently and even with a bit of irony answered that there was no gun there. Ordinary digital noise and interference that distort the original image. AT this moment the painting is in the gallery's vault and was exhibited only 6 times. Each time the picture caused fear among the visitors of the gallery. The artist himself subsequently created a sequel to the painting (2 paintings, one of which depicted the same characters 40 years later). But, alas, they did not conceal any mystery in themselves, and even more so they did not bring misfortune to anyone.

2. Portrait of Bernardo de Galvez

At the end of the hallway at the Galvez Hotel in Galveston, Texas, hangs a portrait of Bernardo de Galvez, a Spanish general who helped American troops during civil war. The city itself is also named after him. Despite the fact that Gálvez died in 1786, rumors about his ghost appeared during his lifetime. Guests and employees of the hotel claimed that the eyes in the portrait followed them as they walked down the corridor. One of the strangest aspects is that Galvez does not allow his portrait to be photographed without "permission". People claim that any photo taken without permission is blurry, or has inexplicable balls, fogs, streaks, or even ghosts. A group of paranormal researchers decided to check whether this is really so. A cold shiver ran through them as they realized that unless you asked permission from the painting, the pictures came out blurry.

3. "Crying Boy"

In fact, this is not one picture, but a whole series. In 1950 italian artist Bruno Amadio, also known as Giovanni Bragolin, painted over 65 portraits of crying orphans, which he sold as souvenirs to tourists. Very quickly, his paintings became popular in England and they began to be massively copied. And until the 1980s, nothing strange happened.

Starting in 1985, firefighters began to claim that they found absolutely intact copies of the Crying Boy among the ashes and rubble of burned houses. Copies were always laid face down on the floor. In more than 50 houses, paintings inexplicably avoided fire.

Numerous psychics have claimed that the ghosts of orphans who died during World War II haunted these paintings. The whole story has reached the level of an urban legend. It should be noted that the original story appeared in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun, so many did not believe everything that was happening. The Sun, to test the legend, organized a massive bonfire for the owners of the paintings. When they brought the reproductions to the general burning, they found that the copies burned surprisingly very slowly. There is even one video on the BBC where a guy tried to burn a copy, pointing out that it burns slower than a regular copy of any other painting.

Maybe we should blame those who covered the copies of the paintings with fireproof varnish?

4. "Martyr"

Undoubtedly, it is creepy and scary picture. It was allegedly kept for 25 years in the attic of the grandmother of a man named Sean Robinson. According to the grandmother, the artist mixed his blood with paint when creating the painting, and immediately after its completion he committed suicide. She also said that various voices, screams and cries could be heard from the picture, and as the grandmother believed, the picture was haunted by the spirit of the creator. All this made the old woman hide the painting in the attic.

In 2010, Robinson inherited the painting, and allegedly almost immediately his family was faced with a series of strange events. Robinson stated that after he took over the Martyr, his son was pushed down the stairs by unseen forces; his wife often felt that something was stroking her hair, and the whole family heard the screams and cries that Robinson's grandmother described. Robinson even decided to put a camera next to the painting to record paranormal activity and then uploaded the recording to YouTube. The video he received showed the painting itself falling to the floor and the doors in the house slamming intermittently. And sometimes strange smoke emanated from the picture.

Many users, after watching the video, claimed that it was a hoax. Robinson has reportedly locked the cursed painting in his basement and refuses to sell it. By the way, there is another picture of the "Martyr", which is said to instill a sense of panic, dizziness, anxiety, even when viewed online. Take a look at it and decide for yourself.

What do you feel?

5. Painting with a man without a head

Our next unusual picture- this is, in fact, a painting painted from a photograph. In the mid-1990s, an artist known only as Laura P. made a living making paintings from photographs. Once her attention was attracted by a strange photo taken by photographer James Kidd.

In the photo, an old stagecoach is depicted in the foreground, and an image of a headless man appears to the side. Kidd insisted that this was not the case when he developed the photo. This became evident over time. Laura could not explain what exactly attracted her to the photo, but she was seized by an irresistible desire to paint a picture.

The artist reported that almost immediately after she began to paint, she could not overcome the feeling of fear and anxiety. She did not dare to complete what she started for a very long time, and when the test was over, the picture ended up in the local office. Workers in the office claimed that as soon as the picture got to them, documents began to disappear in the office, and objects changed their location. After 3 days, the painting was returned to the author. When Laura moved with her husband to new house, the picture along with the mysterious power moved with them.

In the new home, the couple repeatedly heard various anomalous sounds such as bumps, footsteps, and other less identifiable noises that always seemed to occur in the vicinity of the painting. In addition, others strange phenomena began to occur with increasing frequency. Very soon, things began to move around the house, doors opened, the roof began to leak, although everything was in order with it. One case was incredibly creepy: the glass from which Laura drank suddenly burst in her hand, and a large piece of glass disappeared without a trace.

Laura regretted having painted this picture and expressed her desire to destroy it.

6. "Love Letters"

The list of cursed paintings will be replenished with a portrait of a little girl, which can be seen at The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA. The girl depicted in the picture is very similar to another girl named Samantha Houston, 4 summer daughter US senator who died while staying at a hotel. She fell down the stairs while chasing a ball. Guests and staff reported that the girl in the painting sometimes changes her expression. There is also ample evidence that the picture "makes" you feel bad, and that it makes you feel dizzy, sick. Perhaps the ghost of the senator's daughter fell in love with this portrait, and he decided to "settle" in it.

7. "Dead mother"

one more painting "Dead Mother" by Edvard Munch (author of the painting "The Scream"). If anyone does not know, Munch almost went crazy as a child. His upbringing was done by his father, whom everyone in the district knew for religious fanaticism, and his mother and his sisters died of tuberculosis when he was only 5 years old. This picture seems to reflect his longing, despair and madness to some extent. Munch spoke about his work in his usual manner: "Illness, madness and death were dark angels who looked after my cradle." People who once owned this painting claimed that the girl's eyes constantly followed them, and the sheets on the mother's bed made noise or moved. Sometimes the image of the girl left the picture.

8. "Man proposes, God disposes"

AT art gallery Royal Holloway College, that at the University of London there is a painting entitled "Man proposes, God disposes", painted by Sir Edwin Landseer. The painting depicts an Arctic expedition team with their leader, Sir John Franklin. This team was not destined to survive. They are not just stuck in the ice of the Arctic ... They are devoured by polar bears. This picture drives students crazy, distracts them from the exam (exams are often held in the gallery), which they then “successfully” fail. Sometimes it is hung with a Union Jack flag. According to student legend, one student lost her mind and took her own life in front of an audience. True or not, but this is enough to get rid of the picture once and for all.

This review covers only the most famous paintings. What is it, true or false... You decide. But one thing is clear: paintings are not just images. They have a secret and a hidden power.

Art, from the moment the primitive man appeared on the walls of the cave, excited and influenced humanity. As soon as the artist's brush touches the canvas, the real process of creation begins. The author does not just do his job, he puts his soul and a particle of himself into his work. Streams of energy seem to descend from the tips of the fingers, move along the brush and stop on the canvas.

That is why we literally feel that the paintings of real artists look and feel "as if alive". Plots and images can cause a person to cry, depression, disgust, or vice versa, a feeling of joy and happiness.

However, the question arises: Can paintings influence our lives in general?

In this article, you will get acquainted with the stories of paintings that can cause a slight chill. Even the photographs of some of them evoke, if not horror, then certainly cause discomfort. If so, we have warned you!

1. "Hands resist him"

Let's start with perhaps the most infamous painting - "The Hands Resist Him", by Bill Stoneham. She became so "famous" that she was called "the most ghostly painting in the world."

In 1972, while Stoneham was living with his wife in California, he was under contract to the Charles Feingarten Gallery. According to the contract, the artist had to create two paintings per month.

The deadline for the work was coming to an end, and Stoneham decided to paint a picture, taking as a basis his old photograph, where he was 5 years old. He named this picture in honor of the poem that his wife wrote for Stoneham himself (the poem was that Bill was adopted as a child, and he never knew anything about his biological parents).

The result is an image depicting a boy, next to which stands a creepy doll with no eyes. According to Stoneham, the boy is himself at the age of 5, and the doorway in the picture is a barrier between the real world (where the hands are depicted) and the world of dreams. At the same time, the doll is a guide to the fantasy world.

As for the hands, the artist cryptically said: “Hands could mean anything ... But, you will definitely have a question: Are these hands without a body? The body was dismembered, and the hands themselves? Or are they still in place, with the body?

The painting was exhibited at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills, California. This painting was featured in the Los Angeles Times in an article by art historian Henry Seldis. At this exhibition, the picture attracted the attention of actor John Marley, who played the role of Jack Woltz in The Godfather. He liked it so much that he decided to buy it.

Within one year after the creation of the picture, three people died at once: art critic Seldis, gallery owner Feingarten and actor Marley. After that, the picture seemed to have disappeared, until in 2000 the couple found it left by someone behind a brewery (which, by the way, was turned into an art space) in the same California.

They took this picture for themselves, considering it a good acquisition. In February of the same year, they put it up for sale on eBay, explaining that this picture carries horror in itself, and in general it is cursed and ghosts come out of it. Their announcement was more like a warning than an announcement.

Entirely capitalized and misspelled, the ad included a mini story about why they decided to get rid of the painting. According to the couple, their 4-year-old daughter said she saw the children from the painting come into the room at night and start fighting.

The woman herself (the girl's mother) does not believe in UFOs and similar things, but her husband decided to install a camera. The camera filmed three nights in a row.

In the end, the couple received pictures confirming the words of their daughter. In a photo they posted on eBay, the doll allegedly holds a gun while threatening the boy. The couple also asked in their announcement not to make a claim after the acquisition of the painting.

This ad has been viewed over 30,000 times. In the comments, people wrote that they felt bad as soon as they saw these photos. Some tried to print them, but the printer gave an error or broke.

Some claimed that when viewing the photos, they felt warm air currents that enveloped them, whispering various things in their ears with children's voices. And someone even set fire to sage to cleanse their living space of evil spirits after browsing an eBay page.

As a result, the painting was bought by Kim Smith for $1025, the owner of the Perception Gallery in Michigan. A year later, Smith was contacted by a paranormal website and asked if anything paranormal had happened since buying this painting or not.

Smith, in her response, said that the picture itself did not bring her any failures or troubles, but the letters from people with advice on how to clean the room, how to protect yourself with the help of a shaman, definitely drove her crazy.

Gallery workers turned to the artist himself with a question about the gun in the hands of the doll. The artist confidently and even with a bit of irony answered that there was no gun there. Ordinary digital noise and interference that distort the original image.

The painting is currently in the gallery's vault and has only been exhibited 6 times. Each time the picture caused fear among the visitors of the gallery. The artist himself subsequently created a sequel to the painting (2 paintings, one of which depicted the same characters 40 years later). But, alas, they did not conceal any mystery in themselves, and even more so they did not bring misfortune to anyone.

2. Portrait of Bernardo de Galvez

At the end of the hallway at the Galvez Hotel in Galveston, Texas, hangs a portrait of Bernardo de Galvez, a Spanish general who helped American troops during the Civil War. The city itself is also named after him.

Despite the fact that Gálvez died in 1786, rumors about his ghost appeared during his lifetime. Guests and employees of the hotel claimed that the eyes in the portrait followed them as they walked down the corridor.

One of the strangest aspects is that Galvez does not allow his portrait to be photographed without "permission".

People claim that any photo taken without permission is blurry, or has inexplicable balls, fogs, streaks, or even ghosts. A group of paranormal researchers decided to check whether this is really so.

A cold shiver ran through them as they realized that unless you asked permission from the painting, the pictures came out blurry.

3. "Crying Boy"

In fact, this is not one picture, but a whole series. In 1950, the Italian artist Bruno Amadio, also known as Giovanni Bragolin, painted over 65 portraits of crying orphans, which he sold as souvenirs to tourists.

Very quickly, his paintings became popular in England and they began to be massively copied. And until the 1980s, nothing strange happened.

Starting in 1985, firefighters began to claim that they found absolutely intact copies of the Crying Boy among the ashes and rubble of burned houses. Copies were always laid face down on the floor. In more than 50 houses, paintings inexplicably avoided fire.

Numerous psychics have claimed that the ghosts of orphans who died during World War II haunted these paintings. The whole story has reached the level of an urban legend.

It should be noted that the original story appeared in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun, so many did not believe everything that was happening.

The Sun, to test the legend, organized a massive bonfire for the owners of the paintings. When they brought the reproductions to the general burning, they found that the copies burned surprisingly very slowly.

There is even one video on the BBC where a guy tried to burn a copy, pointing out that it burns slower than a regular copy of any other painting.

Maybe we should blame those who covered the copies of the paintings with fireproof varnish?

4. "Martyr"

Undoubtedly, this is a terrible and terrible picture. It was allegedly kept for 25 years in the attic of the grandmother of a man named Sean Robinson. According to the grandmother, the artist mixed his blood with paint when creating the painting, and immediately after its completion he committed suicide.

She also said that various voices, screams and cries could be heard from the picture, and as the grandmother believed, the picture was haunted by the spirit of the creator. All this made the old woman hide the painting in the attic.

In 2010, Robinson inherited the painting, and allegedly almost immediately his family was faced with a series of strange events. Robinson stated that after he took over the Martyr, his son was pushed down the stairs by unseen forces; his wife often felt that something was stroking her hair, and the whole family heard the screams and cries that Robinson's grandmother described.

Robinson even decided to put a camera next to the painting to record paranormal activity, and then uploaded the recording to YouTube. The video he received showed the painting itself falling to the floor and the doors in the house slamming intermittently. And sometimes strange smoke emanated from the picture.

Many users, after watching the video, claimed that it was a hoax. Robinson has reportedly locked the cursed painting in his basement and refuses to sell it.

5. Painting with a man without a head

Our next unusual painting is actually a painting from a photograph. In the mid-1990s, an artist known only as Laura P. made a living making paintings from photographs. Once her attention was attracted by a strange photo taken by photographer James Kidd.

In the photo, an old stagecoach is depicted in the foreground, and an image of a headless man appears to the side. Kidd insisted that this was not the case when he developed the photo. This became evident over time. Laura could not explain what exactly attracted her to the photo, but she was seized by an irresistible desire to paint a picture.

The artist reported that almost immediately after she began to paint, she could not overcome the feeling of fear and anxiety. She did not dare to complete what she started for a very long time, and when the test was over, the picture ended up in the local office.

Workers in the office claimed that as soon as the picture got to them, documents began to disappear in the office, and objects changed their location. After 3 days, the painting was returned to the author. When Laura moved with her husband to a new house, the painting, along with a mysterious power, moved with them.

In the new home, the couple repeatedly heard various anomalous sounds such as bumps, footsteps, and other less identifiable noises that always seemed to occur in the vicinity of the painting. In addition, other strange phenomena began to occur with increasing frequency.

Very soon, things began to move around the house, doors opened, the roof began to leak, although everything was in order with it. One case was incredibly creepy: the glass from which Laura drank suddenly burst in her hand, and a large piece of glass disappeared without a trace.

Laura regretted having painted this picture and expressed her desire to destroy it.

6. "Love Letters"

The list of cursed paintings will be replenished with a portrait of a little girl, which can be seen at The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA.

The girl depicted in the picture is very similar to another girl named Samantha Houston, the 4-year-old daughter of a US senator who died while staying at a hotel.

She fell down the stairs while chasing a ball. Guests and staff reported that the girl in the painting sometimes changes her expression. There is also ample evidence that the picture "makes" you feel bad, and that it makes you feel dizzy, sick.

Perhaps the ghost of the senator's daughter fell in love with this portrait, and he decided to "settle" in it.

7. "Dead mother"

Another painting "Dead Mother" by Edvard Munch (author of the painting "The Scream"). If anyone does not know, Munch almost went crazy as a child. His upbringing was done by his father, whom everyone in the district knew for religious fanaticism, and his mother and his sisters died of tuberculosis when he was only 5 years old.

This picture seems to reflect his longing, despair and madness to some extent. Munch spoke about his work in his usual manner: "Illness, madness and death were dark angels who looked after my cradle."

People who once owned this painting claimed that the girl's eyes constantly followed them, and the sheets on the mother's bed made noise or moved. Sometimes the image of the girl left the picture.

8. "Man proposes, God disposes"

In the art gallery of Royal Holloway College, at the University of London, there is a painting called "Man proposes, God disposes", painted by Sir Edwin Landseer. The painting depicts an Arctic expedition team with their leader, Sir John Franklin. This team was not destined to survive.

They are not just stuck in the ice of the Arctic ... They are devoured by polar bears. This picture drives students crazy, distracts them from the exam (exams are often held in the gallery), which they then “successfully” fail.

Sometimes it is hung with a Union Jack flag. According to student legend, one student lost her mind and took her own life in front of an audience. True or not, but this is enough to get rid of the picture once and for all.

This review covers only the most famous paintings. What is it, true or false... You decide. But one thing is clear: paintings are not just images. They have a secret and a hidden power.

Art, from the moment the drawings appeared on the walls of the cave of primitive man, excited and influenced people. As soon as the artist's brush touches the canvas, the real process of creation begins. The author does not just do his job, he puts his soul and a particle of himself into his work. Streams of energy seem to descend from the tips of the fingers, move along the brush and stop on the canvas.
That is why we literally feel that the paintings of real artists look and feel "as if alive". Plots and images can cause a person to cry, depression, disgust, or vice versa - a feeling of joy and happiness.
However, the question arises: can paintings influence our lives in general?
Here are a few stories that can cause a slight chill. Even photographs of some paintings suggest, if not horror, then certainly cause discomfort.

The painting "The Hands Resist Him" ​​by Bill Stoneham became so "famous" that it was called "the most ghostly painting in the world." In 1978, while Stoneham was living with his wife in California, he was under contract to the Charles Feingarten Gallery. According to the contract, the artist had to create two paintings per month.
The deadline for the work was coming to an end, and Stoneham decided to paint a picture, taking as a basis his old photographs, where he was 5 years old. He named this picture after a poem written by his wife for Stoneham himself (the poem was about how Bill, who was an orphan and never knew anything about his biological parents, was adopted).
The result is an image depicting a boy, next to which stands a creepy doll with no eyes. According to Stoneham, the boy is himself at the age of 5, and the doorway in the picture symbolizes the barrier between the real world (where the hands are depicted) and the world of dreams. At the same time, the doll is a guide to the fantasy world.

As for the hands, the artist cryptically said: "Hands could mean anything ... But, you will definitely have a question: are these hands without a body? The body was dismembered, and the hands themselves? Or are they still on place, with the body?
The painting was exhibited at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills (California), and it immediately attracted attention - mention of it can be found in the Los Angeles Times newspaper in an article by art critic Henry Seldis, and actor John Marley, who played the role of Jack Voltz in The Godfather father liked it so much that he decided to buy it.
Within one year after the creation of the picture, three people died at once: art historian Seldis, gallery owner Feingarten and actor Marley.
After that, the painting seemed to disappear until a couple discovered it in 2000. The canvas, thrown away by someone as garbage behind a brewery in the same California, was taken by the couple, considering it a good purchase. And already in February of the same year, the find was put up for auction, honestly explaining that this picture is fraught with horror and ghosts come out of it. Their announcement, more like a warning, was written capital letters, with errors and resembled a mini-story about why they decided to get rid of the picture. According to the couple, their four-year-old daughter said she saw the children from the painting come into the room at night and start fighting.
The woman herself (the girl's mother) did not believe in mysticism and similar nonsense told by the child. However, the husband decided to install a camera that recorded what was happening for three nights in a row.
In the end, the couple received pictures confirming their daughter's words. In the photo, the doll allegedly holds a gun, threatening the boy. The couple also asked in their announcement not to make a claim after the acquisition of the painting.
This ad featuring a reproduction of the painting has been viewed over 30,000 times online. In the comments, people wrote that they felt bad as soon as they saw these photos. Some tried to print them, but the printer gave an error or broke.
Some claimed that when viewing the photos, they felt warm air currents, which, enveloping them, whispered something in their ears. And someone even set fire to sage to cleanse their home of evil spirits after watching.
As a result, the painting was bought by Kim Smith for $1025, the owner of the Perception Gallery in Michigan. A year later, Smith was contacted by the website of the paranormal and. asked if anything paranormal happened after buying this picture or not. Smith, in her response, said that the picture itself did not bring her any failures or troubles, but the letters from people with advice on how to clean the room, how to protect yourself with the help of a shaman, definitely drove her crazy.
Gallery workers turned to the artist himself with a question about the gun in the hands of the doll. The artist confidently and even overcame irony answered that there was no gun there. Ordinary digital noise and interference that distort the original image.
At the moment, the painting is in the gallery's vault and was exhibited only 6 times. Each time the picture caused fear among the visitors of the gallery: The artist himself subsequently created a sequel to the picture (2 paintings, one of which depicted the same characters 40 years later). But, alas, they did not conceal any mystery in themselves, and even more so they did not bring misfortune to anyone.

At the end of the hallway at the Galvez Hotel in Galveston, Texas, hangs a portrait of Bernardo de Galvez, a Spanish general who helped American troops during the Civil War. The city itself is also named after him.
Despite the fact that Gálvez died in 1786, rumors about his ghost appeared during his lifetime. Guests and employees of the hotel claimed that the eyes in the portrait followed them as they walked down the corridor.

One of the strangest aspects is that Galvez does not allow his portrait to be photographed without "permission".
People claim that any photograph taken without permission is of poor quality: blurry, with inexplicable balls, fog, stripes or ... ghosts.

In fact, this is not one picture, but a whole series. In 1950, the Italian artist Bruno Amadio, also known as Giovanni Bragolin, painted over 65 portraits of crying orphans, which he sold as souvenirs to tourists.
Very quickly, his paintings became popular in England and they began to be massively copied. And until the 1980s, nothing strange happened.
Starting in 1985, firefighters began to claim that they found completely intact copies of the "Crying Boy" among the ashes and rubble of burned houses. Copies were always placed face down on the floor. In more than 50 houses, paintings inexplicably avoided fire.
Numerous psychics have claimed that the ghosts of orphans who died during World War II haunted these paintings. The whole story has reached the level of an urban legend.
It should be noted that the original story appeared in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun, so many did not believe everything that was happening.

The Sun, to test the legend, organized a massive bonfire for the owners of the paintings. When they brought the reproductions to the general burning, they found that the copies burned surprisingly very slowly.
There is even one video of a guy trying to burn a copy, pointing out that it burns slower than a regular copy of any other painting.
Maybe we should blame those who covered the copies of the paintings with fireproof varnish?

Undoubtedly, this is a terrible and terrible picture. It was allegedly kept for 25 years in the attic of the grandmother of a man named Sean Robinson. According to the grandmother, the artist, when creating the picture, mixed his blood with paint, and immediately after the completion of the work, he committed suicide.
She also said that various voices, screams, crying could be heard from the picture, and, as the grandmother believed, the spirit of the creator pursued the picture. All this made the old woman hide the painting in the attic.
In 2010, Robinson inherited the painting, and allegedly almost immediately his family was faced with a series of strange events. Robinson stated that after he became the owner of the Martyr, his son was pushed down the stairs by unseen forces; his wife often felt something stroking her hair, and the whole family heard screaming and crying, which Robinson's grandmother described.

Robinson even decided to put a camera next to the painting to record paranormal activity, and then posted the recording on the Internet. The video he received showed the painting itself falling to the floor and the doors in the house slamming intermittently. Sometimes strange smoke emanated from the picture.
Robinson reportedly locked the cursed painting in his basement and refused to sell it.

Painting with a man without a head

Our next unusual painting is actually a painting made from a photograph. In the mid-1990s, an artist known only as Laura P. made a living making paintings from photographs. Once her attention was attracted by a strange photo taken by photographer James Kidd.
In the photo, an old stagecoach is depicted in the foreground, and an image of a headless man appears to the side. Kidd insisted that this was not the case when he developed the photo. This became evident over time. Laura could not explain what exactly attracted her to the photo, but she was seized by an irresistible desire to paint a picture.
The artist reported that almost immediately after she began to paint, she could not overcome the feeling of fear and anxiety. She did not dare to complete what she started for a very long time, and when the test was over, the picture ended up in the local office.
Office workers claimed that as soon as the picture settled in them, documents began to disappear in the office, and objects changed their location. Three days later, the painting was returned to the author. When Laura moved with her husband to a new house, the painting, along with a mysterious power, moved with them.
In the new home, the couple repeatedly heard various anomalous sounds such as bumps, footsteps, and other less identifiable noises that always seemed to occur in the vicinity of the painting. In addition, other strange phenomena began to occur with increasing frequency.
Very soon, things began to move around the house, doors opened, the roof began to leak, although everything was in order with it. One case was incredibly creepy: the glass from which Laura drank suddenly burst in her hand, and a large piece of glass disappeared without a trace.
Laura regretted having painted this picture and expressed her desire to destroy it.

The list of cursed paintings will be replenished with a portrait of a little girl, which can be seen at The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA.

The girl depicted in the painting is very similar to another girl named Samantha Houston, the four-year-old daughter of a US senator who died while staying at a hotel.
She fell down the stairs while chasing a ball. Guests and staff reported that the girl in the painting sometimes changes her expression. There is also ample evidence that the picture "makes" you feel bad, and that it makes you feel dizzy, sick.
Perhaps the ghost of the senator's daughter fell in love with this portrait, and he decided to "settle" in it.

Another painting is "Dead Mother" by Edvard Munch (the author of the painting "The Scream"). If anyone does not know, Munch almost went out of his way as a child. His father, whom everyone in the district knew as a religious fanatic, was engaged in his upbringing, and his mother and his sisters died from tuberculosis when he was only 5 years old.

This picture seems to reflect his longing, despair and madness to some extent. Munch spoke about his work in a manner characteristic of him: "Illness, madness and death were dark angels who looked after my cradle."
People who once owned this painting claimed that the girl's eyes constantly followed them, and the sheets on the mother's bed made noise or moved. Sometimes the image of the girl left the picture.

In the art gallery of Royal Holloway College, at the University of London, there is a painting called "Man proposes, God disposes", painted by Sir Edwin Landseer. The painting depicts an Arctic expedition team with their leader, Sir John Franklin. This team was not destined to survive.
They are not just stuck in the ice of the Arctic... They are being devoured by polar bears. This picture drives students crazy, distracts them from the exam (exams are often held in the gallery), which they then "successfully" fail.

Sometimes it is hung with a Union Jack flag. According to student legend, one student lost her mind and took her own life in front of an audience. True or not, but this is enough to get rid of the picture once and for all.
These are the pictures ... What is it, true or false? You decide. But one thing is clear: paintings are not just images. They still have a secret and a hidden power ...

Creations of artists do not leave people indifferent and cause a storm of emotions - from joy to tears. But there are also such paintings, the mere sight of which makes one shudder. They say about some canvases that spirits live in them: from these paintings it blows cold, when you pass by, it seems that the heroes of the canvases are watching you. They can drive mad and even kill their owners. It is not dangerous to look at these paintings through the monitor (but this is not certain), but we do not advise you to look for them, much less buy and hang them in the bedroom.

Behind the painting "The Suffering Man" is a truly terrifying story. No one knows who painted the picture, but it is known that the artist mixed his blood with the paint, and after he finished the masterpiece, committed suicide. The current owner of the painting, Sean Robinson, says he inherited the painting from his grandmother, who, in turn, claimed that the painting was cursed. When Sean hung the picture in the bedroom, the household heard her whispering and crying at night and saw a strange shadow.

Not only do Beksiński's paintings look like illustrations of hell, but there are such legends about them that people believe that the canvases are cursed.

Beksinsky's life was tragic: his wife died, his son committed suicide. Six years later, the artist was found murdered in his own apartment. Some believe that if you look at Beksinsky's paintings for a long time, you will soon die.

"Hands Resist Him" ​​by Bill Stoneham

Around the picture, written in 1972, there are legends - supposedly spirits live in it. Previous owners have said that at night the characters in the painting move and even come out of the frame. And the owner of the gallery where the painting was first exhibited, and the art critic who worked with it for a long time, died a year after contact with the canvas.

"Man proposes, God disposes" Edwin Henry Landseer

The painting depicts a gruesome scene: the alleged death of John Franklin's expedition in 1845, which vanished without a trace. The painting is located at King's College Holloway, University of London. For the duration of the exams in the room where the canvas hangs, the picture is hung with the British flag. The tradition appeared when one of the students could not sit near the picture and began frantically looking for something to cover it with. The British flag came to hand. There is a superstition that a person looking at a picture goes crazy.

Reproduction " love letters» Charles Trevor Garland, Richard King

The painting hangs in the Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, where the four-year-old daughter of US Senator Samantha Houston fell down the stairs and died in 1887. And although Samantha is not depicted on the canvas, many believe that the spirit of the girl moved into the picture, and some argue that the girls are like two drops of water. People feel uncomfortable and even feel weak when they look at a picture for a long time. Some hotel guests say they saw the ghost of a little girl playing with a ball.

"Rain Woman", Svetlana Telets

The artist Svetlana Telets said that she painted the picture in about five hours and felt that someone was leading her hand. It is said that everyone who bought a painting returned it complaining of insomnia, sadness, and the feeling that the portrait was watching them.

The Crying Boy, Giovanni Bragolina

The artist painted a series of paintings of crying children that he sold to tourists. About herself famous painting The Crying Boy is said to be cursed. British newspaper The Sun reported that firefighters often find reproductions of the "Crying Boy" on fires of houses, and completely unharmed. Many believe that the image attracts fire and misfortune.

"Portrait of Bernardo de Galvez", unknown author

The painting is located at the Galvez Hotel, in Galveston, Texas. Hotel guests talk about strange incidents related to the canvas. Some claim that Bernardo de Galvez is watching them, and besides, next to the picture it is very cold and uncomfortable. But perhaps the strangest thing is that every time a painting is photographed, the picture is blurry. But some still manage to take a clear picture - you just need to ask the portrait for permission to take a photo.

Untitled, Laura P.

Laura P. painted a painting from a photograph by James Kidd. Kidd claimed that he did not shoot the headless man (to the left of the van), the figure appeared during the development of the picture. The artist complained that when she completed the work, strange things began to happen - objects fell around, broke, something constantly disappeared. Some believe that the spirit that appeared in the original photograph haunts the painting as well.