These two paintings are Surrounded by urban legends because of the way they were created by their painters. They were the only ones who, over the years, have had their strange background contested by scholars and have become the reason of great scrutiny.
The Dead Mother (1899) painting of the notorious artist Edvard Munch, famous for creating the Scream, which is his work of greater historical significance. Although The Dead Mother is not listed among his outstanding works, she is one of the paintings on the top list of the most haunted pictures in the world. The reason is it reflects the inner emotions of the brilliant painter.
Edvard Munch grew up in a highly abusive home – which irreversibly drove him crazy – because of his father, a religious fanatic who lost control after the tragic death of his daughter and wife from tuberculosis. He poured into the painting all his deepest doses of anguish, despair and insanity, with elements that immortalize the way this misery was part of his life. He focused it on his sister’s eyes next to her mother’s deathbed, facing those who look at the work in the same way that death stared at her. Death stared at her mother and swallowed her, and stared at Edvard and made him lose his mind, his sanity.
Everyone in possession of the painting stated that the girl’s eyes followed them without stopping wherever it hung. They said that the work creaked, whined and let out dying murmurs, as if it were the complaints of the departing mother. Sometimes they saw the girl roaming the place. Even one of her possessors, an art curator named Nina Flores, was found by her mother in a kind of sleep paralysis that, according to Nina, had lasted more than 30 minutes. Edvard Munch’s painting hung over the sideboard of the foyer of his house and the woman said the girl had jumped from the picture and walked over to her. The Dead Mother is currently at Hamburger Kunsthalle, an art museum in Germany.
Bill Stoneham
1972
Created in 1972 by Bill Stoneham, The Hands Resist Him painting shows a little boy and a little girl standing in front of a panel full of hands pressing on him or trying to reach him. Stoneham said the inspiration for the work came when he reconnected with his emotions, with everything he suffered as a child while living in the foster care system.
It portrays the deep pain, anger, abandonment, fear, and inner hardships that he remembered having experienced during those years. The figure of the boy in the image came from a picture of the artist himself as a child in one of the most suffering moments of that age. Bill Stoneham had panic attacks, some peaks of psychosis, and suffered from severe melancholy while painting the canvas.
The picture went viral in February 2000, when it was auctioned on eBay by an elderly couple who claimed it came alive at night. In the ad there were infrared photos taken by the couple to support what they said, as well as a host of other evidence. From this, everyone who owned the painting claims to have witnessed bizarre events, such as night attacks, disease triggers, and noises around the house. And no one could stand to look at the image for too long.
It is also interesting to note that all those involved in the painting before its publication died a few weeks later, as was the case of the art curator who reviewed it and the owner of the gallery where it was exhibited. The first buyer of the work, actor John Marley (of The Godfather) died shortly after acquiring it.
The screen is currently believed to be owned by Perception Gallery.
