Stories of haunted paintings have circulated for centuries, and we love these tales because they suggest that the creative process can conjure something far darker than Vantablack. Do some artworks hold evil energy—one that manifests in mysterious and nefarious ways to the detriment of those who come into contact with them? There’s no way to know for sure, though there are plenty of paintings in museums and private collections that are rumored to be cursed, inhabited by restless spirits or filled with malicious energy. Their effects range from merely unsettling to downright terrifying; those who spend time in the presence of haunted paintings report experiencing everything from subtle feelings of discomfort to full-blown paranormal experiences, misfortune and bodily harm.
The tales they tell are classic: strings of unexplained bad luck, feelings of dread, eerie whispers, ghostly presences and bizarre phenomena. Sometimes just viewing a print or even a photo of a haunted painting can trigger supernatural occurrences. True believers accept that the emotional force of an artist or the intensity of the experiences of their subject can leave an indelible—and malevolent—mark on a work. Often, that mark is left by the artist’s own personal torment, but in other reportedly haunted paintings, dark rituals associated with a work’s creation imbue it with forces beyond our understanding.
Much like ghost stories, the idea that a painting can hold a curse or be haunted taps into our collective fear of death and the unknown. The artworks below have become objects of both fascination and fear, captivating those who are drawn to the darker side of the art world. Whether they are truly haunted or simply haunting is up to you to decide.
The Dead Mother by Edvard Munch
Munch readily acknowledged that his work was darkly personal in nature—”I paint not what I see, but what I saw,” he wrote of works like Death in the Sickroom. Munch’s painting of a child standing before her dead mother, unambiguously titled The Dead Mother, has a particularly haunting reputation. It has been in the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen since 1918, but previous owners of the work reported that the eyes of the child seemed to follow them and that they heard the sound of sheets rustling or whispers from the painting. And sometimes, according to rumors, the girl disappears from the canvas.
The cursed painting of Zdzisław Beksiński
Zdzisław Beksiński’s darkly dystopian surrealist paintings are ominous and unsettling in and of themselves—add in the fact that in 2005 the artist was murdered in his home and things get more interesting. An untitled work from 1972 is reportedly haunted, and it’s said that the owners of this painting have experienced extreme feelings of dread, bizarre accidents and violent disturbances in their home. But it’s tough to nail down exactly which of his paintings is literally haunted because Beksiński seldom titled his paintings, and he painted more than a few nightmarish works that year. In contrast, he himself was said to be not particularly creepy but rather modest and shy, as well as a convivial and witty conversationalist.
Man Proposes, God Disposes by Edwin Landseer
This 1864 painting, which depicts polar bears feasting gruesomely on the remains of a doomed Arctic expedition, hangs at Royal Holloway college at the University of London. It is the subject of an urban legend that claims that a student committed suicide in front of the painting by stabbing a pencil in their eye–but not before writing “The polar bears made me do it” on their exam paper. Students and staff have reported feelings of unease around the painting, and it’s said that anyone sitting in front of the painting during an exam will fail it.
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Mi Novia (or Portrait of a Lady) by Juan Luna
According to legend, Mi Novia depicts Paz Pardo de Tavera, the wife Juan Luna murdered and whose spirit now possesses the portrait. Other sources say the woman in the painting is model Angela Duche, who according to a Wikipedia note “was neither married to nor murdered by him.” Still, past owners of the work have experienced many sorrows, from miscarriage to bankruptcy to death by car crash. And somewhat less dramatically, a lightbulb over the painting reportedly exploded during an 1987 exhibition of the work at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.
The Rain Woman by Svetlana Telets
This painting by Ukrainian artist Svetlana Telets has a creepy backstory: she painted The Rain Woman in 1996 after six months of feeling like she was being watched. While creating the initial sketch, she felt like “someone was controlling” her hand. A succession of people have purchased and then returned the work, claiming that not long after acquiring the painting, a ghostly figure started watching them or even following them. Musician Sergei Skachkov bought The Rain Woman in 2008 but put the painting in storage after his wife saw a ghostly figure in their home. Many have claimed that the woman in The Rain Woman has a life of her own or that the painting itself has a soul.
Portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina by Vladimir Borovikovsky
Maria Lopukhina, sister of the famous adventurer Fyodor Tolstoy, died of consumption at 26, but not before Vladimir Borovikovsky painted her portrait, which today hangs in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Known as the “Russian Mona Lisa” for Lopukhina’s elusive and sorrowful smile, the painting is said to be haunted by her spirit—rumors say her grieving father, a Freemason, trapped her soul in the painting, condemning young women who stare too long at it to unhappy marriages and early deaths or, perhaps, for their souls to be similarly imprisoned. Viewers report feelings of overwhelming sadness after gazing into Lopukhina’s eyes and many have fainted. Gallery employees claim her expression regularly changes, and some have even seen her spirit materialize next to the canvas.
The Hands Resist Him by Bill Stoneham
This surreal and unsettling work, created by Stoneham in 1972 and sometimes referred to as the ‘haunted eBay painting,’ has gained a reputation as one of the most haunted artworks in existence. The painting depicts a young boy standing in front of a glass door next to a child-sized doll while strange disembodied hands press against the panes behind them. The artist has explained that the painting depicts that barrier between the waking world and our dreams, but despite his benign artistic intent, the painting—which was sold on eBay in the early 2000s—has become infamous for its associations with the paranormal. The seller claimed it caused nightmares and that figures in the painting moved during the night. Some viewers reported that the boy and the doll would disappear from the canvas or that the hands behind the glass would shift or reach out. Even viewing the painting online apparently caused people to experience strange feelings, and stories of the painting bringing bad luck and causing technology to malfunction have circulated widely. According to rumors, The Hands Resist Him was responsible for the death of both a gallery owner and the first critic to review the painting.
The Crying Boy by Giovanni Bragolin
This now infamous painting by Italian artist Giovanni Bragolin became notorious in the 1980s for an alleged curse and the media frenzy surrounding it. Prints of the painting, part of a frankly bizarre series depicting tearful children, were mass-produced and widely sold in the U.K. After a string of mysterious house fires in which homes burned to the ground but prints of The Crying Boy were found untouched among the ashes, some began to believe that the print was either bad luck or even causing the fires. Firefighters even reportedly advised people to remove the print from their homes. An investigation by the Building Research Establishment later found that the reproductions had been treated with a varnish containing a very effective fire retardant, but the legend persisted and the prints continue to be associated with unexplained disasters.
The Anguished Man by an unknown artist
The Anguished Man is infamous for its disturbing history and unsettling presence, as well as for the copies it inspires. The story goes that the artist mixed their own blood into the paint before creating the image of a bald and noseless screamer and then committed suicide shortly after completing the work. The painting ended up in the possession of current owner Sean Robinson, who, according to videos he’s posted to YouTube, inherited it in 2010 from his grandmother, who’d kept it locked away because she believed it brought bad luck and was cursed. When Robinson displayed the painting in his home, he and his family reportedly experienced a series of terrifying events—appearances by shadowy figures, disembodied moans and screams and the sensation of being watched. The story of The Anguished Man was acquired in 2016 by La Brea Pictures, which hinted at a film that would be directed by Til Ricks, but the project appears to have stalled.
Love Letters by Richard King in the Driskill Hotel
The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, is reportedly one of the most haunted hotels in the United States. It’s also home to a reproduction of Charles Trevor Garland’s painting of a young girl holding a letter in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other done by Richard King. King’s version, a faithful copy of the original, evokes a similar sense of innocence, but this particular painting has also gained a reputation for its mysterious connection to a tragic event. The story goes that a young girl, the daughter of Senator Temple Lea Houston, fell to her death on the grand staircase of the Driskill Hotel in 1887. Some believe that the girl in Love Letters bears an uncanny resemblance to that girl, and guests have reported everything from seeing the girl’s expression change to feeling sudden chills and dizziness or a sense of being watched, adding to the hotel’s already haunted reputation.
The portrait of Bernardo de Galvez in the Hotel Galvez
Hanging in the Galvez Hotel in Galveston, Texas, a portrait of Spanish military leader Bernardo de Galvez is steeped in eerie—if mostly benign—folklore. Visitors claim his eyes follow them as they walk by and that simply standing too close to the painting can inspire a sense of dread. Those who attempt to photograph the portrait without first politely asking de Galvez for his permission end up with blurry and warped images or worse. Some photos contain skull-like distortions, and a team of paranormal investigators that took a photo without asking found themselves with an image not of de Galvez but of his skeleton.
The paintings of Arshile Gorky
For many Armenian genocide survivors, artist Arshile Gorky’s art symbolizes the loss they endured while also providing a sense of identity. And his artworks are still quite popular—at the start of this year’s London Frieze Week, an $8.5 million Arshile Gorky painting sold by Hauser & Wirth at Frieze Masters led the sales. But Gorky’s paintings are rumored to be cursed, as many have been linked to unsettling incidents like artworks falling from walls, galleries catching fire and the appearance of a mysterious black-haired ghost in a blue overcoat. The most chilling event tied to Gorky’s work occurred in 1962 when American Airlines Flight 1 crashed two minutes after takeoff, killing all eighty-seven passengers and destroying fifteen of the artist’s paintings.
