As we've been spending a few weekends at the local flea markets, we've noticed quite a few paintings of crying children. I took photos of a couple of them, but I've seen at least 5 or 6 so far.
My question is - Who buys a painting of a child they don't know . . .
and who's crying?!
Apparently Belgians. Perhaps every Belgian.
Out of curiosity and sheer dismay, I googled this odd artwork. Turns out there are quite a few . . . okay, thousands of these mass-produced prints of paintings done in the 1950s by Spanish painter Bruno Amadio.
The original was called The Crying Boy, but there are lots of boys and girls with tearful faces from this same painter. Okay, thousands.
According to an article I read . . .
Although most of his models look as they were of poor descent, they were picked out at random among schools and playgrounds from around Venice and through ads in newspapers.
Amadio asked the children to take a neutral or sometimes a sad pose. Tears were added when the portrait was finished.
Although there is nothing to explain why Bruno painted these crying children, this next article I read may be the reason we keep seeing them at flea markets now . . .
On September 4, 1985, the British newspaper, The Sun, reported that a firefighter from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of the painting were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. He stated that no firefighter would allow a copy of the painting into his own house. Over the next few months, The Sun and other tabloids ran several articles on house fires suffered by people who had owned the painting.
By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that The Sun was organising mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers.
Hmmm, I never thought of that or that.
This still begs the question . . . why would anyone buy a painting of a child they don't know and who's crying?
Honey, we need a painting over the mantle.
I know just the one!
???
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