Do not try to hang a reproduction of this painting in your house, unless you count on good insurance in the event of a fire. Because, according to the testimony of numerous eyewitnesses and victims, the house where the "Crying Boy" by artist Giovanni Bragolin hangs will inevitably burn down in the near future.
Legends
Many creepy legends surround this picture. Perhaps we will start with them. So, the first legend.
The artist Giovanni Bragolin painted "The Crying Boy" using his own son as a model. However, the child did not want to cry, and the evil father, in order to bring the young model to tears, began to burn matches near his face. In the end, the baby cried and in tears exclaimed: "What would you yourself burn out!"
Less than a month later, the artist's son died of pneumonia, and a couple of weeks later a fire broke out in Bragolin's house, in which the artist himself and almost all of his works died, except for the unfortunate painting …
The second legend. Giovanni Bragolin created his canvas in Spain, using children - victims of the war, who lived in one of the orphanages as models. After the artist finished his work and left, the orphanage burned to the ground.
The third legend. The painting itself (and even its reproduction) does not burn, even if it is set on fire on purpose. And there is a lot of evidence for this. For example, in September 1985, a letter was printed in the British newspaper The Sun in which a couple claimed that the terrible fire that destroyed their house and all property, for some strange reason, did not touch the reproduction of the painting "Crying Boy" on the wall in the living room.
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After this note, letters to the newspaper started flowing. One widow reported that within a few years after purchasing a reproduction (which was inexpensive and sold in many stores), her husband and three sons suddenly passed away.
Another correspondent wrote that almost all of her relatives and friends, who had the misfortune to acquire a replicated copy of the painting, suffered from fires. Moreover, the "Crying Boy" himself each time remained safe and sound.
Facts
There were many such messages, which remarkably raised the circulation of The Sun. But we will not list them all, but try to figure out what is true in these legends and what is pure fiction.
Giovanni Bragolin was born in 1911. It is difficult to say how good he later became a painter, but until the end of his life the artist was distinguished by a certain modesty. This is evidenced by the fact that Giovanni rarely signed his works with his own name. Sometimes he used the pseudonym Bruno Amadio, sometimes Francho of Sevilla.
“Crying Boy” is not one work at all, but a whole series of 27 paintings. The series was called "Gypsy Children" (the artist did not explain to anyone why "Gypsy"). The paintings depicted children with a gloomy, gloomy expression on their faces. Perhaps, the models for the artist really served as orphans after the war.
Giovanni Bragolin could not be burned in a "damned" fire. He died a natural death in 1981, a very wealthy man. The artist presented his creation to the public in the early 50s of the last century. I liked the paintings, and one fairly large publishing house published their reproductions in large circulation - 50 thousand copies.
For some reason they sold well in poor working-class neighborhoods, so it is not surprising that "Crying Boy" hung in almost every home.
Unfortunately, fires happen quite often. And the poor people who live in fire-hazardous houses usually suffer from them. The publisher explained the “fireproofness” of the picture by the fact that the circulation was printed on very thick paper, which is really difficult to set on fire.
These are the facts. But we still do not advise you to bring a reproduction of "Crying Boy" to your house and hang it on the wall. You never know what …
Konstantin Fedorov. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 11 2011
