Has anyone ever had or know anyone who has had the Crying Boy painting in thier house?
If so has anything ever happened?

A friend of mine did and it used to scare me to death, they once had a house fire, the painting was one of the few things to remain 100% in tact

Susie
xx

If this is the painting I am thinking of, my grandmother had two - the crying boy and a crying girl. The myth was that if you separated the two pictures, a tragedy would strike (I seem to remember something along the lines of 'your house will burn down' ) :loopy: Scared the life out of me as a child though :)

EDIT - just read your post Susie. Creepy! :o

It was a horrible time, cos of the severity of the fire there was no way my friends family could live there and my friend had to stay with me for a few months, being about 12-13 at the time it was great having my best friend living with us for a while, none of the family wanted to go back to the house and ended up moving in with their aunt, who lived on her own in a 4 bed house which was big enough for everyone, but they left the painting in the remains of the house.

The estate they lived on has now been demolished so who knows whats happened to that painting.

Susie
xx

Argh. This kind of thing really scares me. I don't know why, cos logically and rationally I don't believe it at all, but it's made me go all shivery and yuck.

Actually,

If that's the painting I think you're talking about there's an interesting account here of how one of our top newspapers (ahem...!!) 'The Sun' actually propagated and perpetuated teh myth.

http://www.shartwell.freeserve.co.uk/humor-site/mythellany.html

Joe

Yes, many years ago there were stories of this painting causing house fires and at the end of the fire this picture was left untouched. I find it hard to believe to be honest.

Originally posted by JoeP
Actually,

If that's the painting I think you're talking about there's an interesting account here of how one of our top newspapers (ahem...!!) 'The Sun' actually propagated and perpetuated teh myth.

http://www.shartwell.freeserve.co.uk/humor-site/mythellany.html

Joe

Interesting reading Joe! Thanks for that link... my nan was a great one for scaring us with various creepy stories :)

As the Sun story was circulated in '85, that can't be it's origin, as I heard the story when I lived in Liverpool, and I left in '82.

I think I heard it in the late '70s. My Great Aunty had the pair above the fire in the living room. I was too young to remember/understand the tale, but they had been taken down for decorating and I remember her and my gran having a chin wag about whether this had anything to do with a string of bad luck recently (I think a nasty fall was involved, but not sure).

this it or not
only 1 in google http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/jun03/tears1.jpg

If that is the one, having it as a desktop wallpaper wouldn't be recommended!

Originally posted by Strix
As the Sun story was circulated in '85, that can't be it's origin, as I heard the story when I lived in Liverpool, and I left in '82.



I think I heard of it in the early 1980s as well.....I think the Sun story popularised it.

There were some other diabolical (from a view of taste, not artistic merit) around then as well. There was one of a naked woman walking on a beach or something similar that was actually the wrapped around wing of a swan....it was very blue....:)

There wasn't a story associated with that one - the print just reminded me of an LP cover for someone like 'Yes' or 'King Crimson'...:)

Joe

What about the woman with the green face?

There can't be many popular pictures with less artistic merit than that, can there?

Originally posted by dishwasher
What about the woman with the green face?

There can't be many popular pictures with less artistic merit than that, can there?

I never saw that one.....

I think I came from a background where the use of paintings on the wall was, to paraphrase 10cc, 'just to hide a nasty stain that's lying there'....:)

Joe

my aunt and my gran had the crying boy painting and her house didnt set on fire

That's a good point Jules - a lot of the thinking behind the Crying Boy legend was that such a painting survived house fires - all the house fires that took place that didn't involve such paintings just get ignored, and at the same time those houses with the paintings that don't burn down also don't get a mention.

It's like saying that teacups cause housefires because there's almost certainly a tea cup in every house that catches fire....:)

Joe

On a similar note.. Does anyone remember the 'haunted painting' that came up for sell on eBay?

Link here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/unexplained/2002/haunted_painting/ebay_haunted_painting_01.shtml)

Haunted or not, this painting is hideous :gag:

If all we had to fear in this vale of tears were stupendously bad art like the aforementioned painting, paradise would surely be on Earth. Careless people, malfunctioning labour-saving devices , fireworks and pathological arsonists burn down houses.
There are so many tales about "Blue boys" depicted on Woolworths paintings, haunted chairs, puddle-making poltergeists around the milk section in some Rotherham Netto store, houses burnt down by the malign influence of Cabbage Patch dolls etc etc. None of them contain a single thread of truth. All are the most sublimely fatuous nonesense. We have much more to fear from the ne'er-do-wells, louts, yobs, cut-purses, and roaming, demented bloody fools of the material world, without worrying about paintings with murderous intentions and "supernatural" forces.

if anyone really wants to see most of the 'crying children' set by J Bragolin, you can scroll down to the gallery at the bottom of this page (http://www.quasimondo.com/bragolincryingboy.php)

My grandmother had the girl and the picture of the boy leaning against a wall.

Edit - the 'doctored' picture at the end of the gallery... yuk! :gag:

My mum had the Crying Boy painting on the top of our stairs, and we all had our photographs taken beside it. Not ONE of the photos came out properly, with bright lights here and faded parts of the pictures.

The rest of the film roll turned out okay, it was just those few pictures. Inexplicable really.

We had the Crying boy at our house.
My Mum bought it in 1972/3 and I can say nothing ever happened un-toward in our house.
When it came on the news with the connection to house fires in the 80s she took it down and got rid.

My Grandma had the ladie with the green face in the 60s.

If you are frightened of 'The Crying Boy' Painting, try this one for size - this IS spookey!

www.castleofspirits.com/ hauntedpainting.html

Total nonsense. We actually have a reproduction print of this so called "cursed" picture and its been hung in same place for at least 30 years.....never had a house fire. Urban myth, thats all it is. Total rubbish about all this house fire stuff, pure conicidence.

OOh, if anyone wants to see the picture, take a look here:
http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/jun03/tears3.jpg

yes thats the print we have....just a picture thats all, not in the least bit spooky!!!!