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- Aug 15, 2005
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kevanf1 said:There is an offshoot to the legend that claims if you hang a Crying Boy together with a Crying Girl then the curse is negated...
But the chamber becomes really, really damp.
kevanf1 said:There is an offshoot to the legend that claims if you hang a Crying Boy together with a Crying Girl then the curse is negated...
Fizz32 said:OTR, the artist's name is Steven Pearson.
gerardwilkie said:Thanks for pointing all that out, but I started this thread back in 2005 , and that was when my point was raised. I live in the UK also and subscribe to FT so I'm aware that it is on the current front cover. My musing about downloading it as wallpaper was a joke. Sorry if you took it too literally. Glad to see that the threads have been merged to stop any further confusion.
kevanf1 said:gerardwilkie said:Thanks for pointing all that out, but I started this thread back in 2005 , and that was when my point was raised. I live in the UK also and subscribe to FT so I'm aware that it is on the current front cover. My musing about downloading it as wallpaper was a joke. Sorry if you took it too literally. Glad to see that the threads have been merged to stop any further confusion.
Please accept my apologies for sort of hijacking the thread. I did honestly run a search on the term 'Crying Boy' before I inadvertently started a new thread about it. Nothing came up in the search
It would be an interesting experiment to actually download a good picture of one of the 'Crying Boys' and hang it in an old shed or something.
Not a problem . The search function does seem to have "off days" from time to time - I'm just lucky in remembering where a lot of threads are.kevanf1 said:Just a quick apology to the moderators for causing them more work with this thread I honestly did a search and the original thread did not show up which is why I started a new one (now merged, thank you).
gncxx said:Was your father's mother a small woman? Could the mystery figure in the hallway have been a projection of her perhaps? Maybe the picture was a catalyst for all sorts of bad "vibes" (for want of a better word) including the psychological effects of the illness on your family?
Just speculating, fine story, though...
Steve Punt turns private eye, investigating the supposed curse of the Crying Boy paintings. The pictures became a tabloid sensation in the 1980s when in a spate of house fires the portraits were often the only items to survive unscathed.
25 years after the story hit the headlines, Punt attempts to get to the bottom of why the paintings didn't perish. Radio 4's dogged detective tracks down one of the mysterious portraits and speaks to former owners, an occultist and fire investigator as well as former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie who broke the story nationwide. Finally, Punt sets fire to the the portrait he's acquired - can he make it catch light?
A burning issue ... Crying Boy painting
Artist behind eerie riddle
SPANIARD Bruno Amadio was born in 1911 and died in 1981, just four years before reports of house fires involving his Crying Boy paintings made the headlines.
He was known as Bragolin but also went by the name Giovanni Bragolin, J Bragolin, or Seville.
He created 27 paintings, which were mass produced and sold globally in the 1960s and 70s.
Around 50,000 Crying Boy-style prints have been sold in Britain.
More than 2,500 were sent to The Sun in 1985, and burned under the supervision of the fire brigade.
Solved: The curse of the Crying Boy
By STEVE PUNT
Published: 09 Oct 2010
IN a chilling story that gripped the nation in 1985, the Yorkshire home of Ron and May Hall was gutted by fire - but their painting of a crying boy remained unscathed.
Hundreds more people went on to report experiences of house fires where a Crying Boy painting had survived. Now comedian STEVE PUNT has re-examined the "curse" for his Radio 4 programme Punt PI, in which he investigates quirky unsolved mysteries.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, George Michael was a bouffant-haired pop god, David Cameron had just started at university - and Britain was in the grip of the Curse Of The Crying Boy. From all over the country came reports of house fires in which a picture of a tearful child was unscathed.
I remembered reading the story at the time and wanted to investigate whether anyone had ever solved the mystery.
I tracked one of the pictures down. Recession has clearly struck the art world because it was only a tenner.
I then talked to Kelvin MacKenzie - Editor of The Sun in 1985 who urged readers to send in their paintings before organising a bonfire - about what made the story so interesting.
The crucial factor, it seemed, was that it was a Yorkshire fireman, not a regular member of the public, who had noticed the unburnt painting and claimed that this was not the first time they had seen it survive a fire.
By this time I had realised that it wasn't just that the Crying Boy was involved in the fires - there were also rumours that it had STARTED them. How could that happen?
I talked to art expert Tim Marlow. He's not a big fan of the Crying Boy but did recognise the name of the artist, Bragolin, who died in 1981 and created a series of Crying Boy paintings for tourists in post-war Venice.
It didn't fit with the extraordinary tale that has appeared on the internet since the original story 25 years ago.
This version claims that the boy in the painting was an orphan whose parents had died in a fire. He was taken in by the painter despite warnings that he was a firestarter - a child who can burn things without touching them.
The artist's studio caught fire and he was ruined. The boy ran away - and ten years later a car crashed in flames on the outskirts of Barcelona.
The driver died in the crash, the online story goes, but a driving licence found inside showed it was the orphan boy.
This story is, of course, too good to be true. And even if the child himself could start fires, that's not the same as a painting of him starting fires, let alone 50,000 copies.
It didn't, to be honest, seem very likely. But was it true that the picture didn't burn? I went to the Building Research Establishment - a laboratory near Watford where they set things on fire for research purposes.
The result was a little surprising. A flame put immediately in front of the painting did set fire to a corner of the frame but only burnt around the outer edge of the child's profile before petering out.
But it turns out there is a reason why paintings often survive fires relatively undamaged: It is to do with the string on the back burning through first.
The painting falls face-down, giving it protection from smoke and heat.
It's easy to see how the Crying Boy became such a phenomenon. It has all the ingredients of a great spooky story.
An eerie child, a rash of fires, a mysterious artist, a "supernatural" ability to survive flames... and a newspaper with an eye for a good story.
Many people were spooked and wanted to be rid of them but Kelvin MacKenzie thinks there is another reason why the paintings flooded in.
He reckons many came from couples where one person had never liked the picture anyway - and saw a good opportunity to get rid of it.
escargot1 said:I'm wondering if the painting was involved in so many fires because most house fires happen in poorer homes, occupied by people who are more likely to own it than, say, an original Rembrandt.
I'm wondering if the painting was involved in so many fires because most house fires happen in poorer homes, occupied by people who are more likely to own it than, say, an original Rembrandt.