"The Crying Boy"- it is a painting that has caused a lot of negative feelings towards it. Why? I will try to answer this question in this presentation.

A terrifying story is connected with this painting. Many people can think that it is only a made-up story, but is this kind of a coincidence possible?

This painting - "The Crying Boy" was painted (probably) by Italian painter Bruno Amadio. Until today it is still unknown what the artist had in mind when painting this cursed picture. The first strange phenomenon connected with the painting was the fire at the studio where it was painted. After this event, the boy who is depicted in the painting was run over by a car. By reading these two previous sentences it is clearly visible that these accidents aren't just everyday cases of mishaps, but this is just the beginning of the whole story.

People started to buy the copies of this painting. It was so maybe because it contained some part of mysticism and it was simply beautiful, but no one has ever noticed it was cursed! Every house in which a portrait of the crying boy was found, burnt down. No one knows why. Everything was burnt... except for the cursed painting. Then, people realized that there is something wrong about the painting and decided to burn all the copies at the big stake. And so they did - all of the copies of "The Crying Boy" were burnt. The residents thought it was the end of fear, but it wasn't. After burning all of the copies loud and terrible screams of children were heard at night. It was probably the last known event associated with this painting. Even if the curse associated with this painting exists, I hope it won't affect any of us.

"The Crying boy" - description of the painting. In the foreground one can see a crying boy, of course. Let us start with the external look of the boy. He has got blonde hair, blue eyes, small nose and big, protruding ears. He is wearing shabby clothes. Braces are visible on his dark-yellow blouse. A blue scarf is tied around his neck. His eyes are bleary. Tears are running down his cheeks. Now it's a time for describing a character of the boy (according to my observations, of course, since actually nobody knew him). I think the boy is sad and annoyed. But of course this is my opinion. At the first glance, only a boy is visible in the foreground, but if we watch carefully other faces can be seen in the background. The crying boy is depicted against the darkness, however, there is a yellowish part in the upper left corner. His right side is illuminated (probably by the sun), and his left side is almost invisible because of the shadow and the darkness.

I think that "The Crying Boy" is a beautiful and nicely done painting, but it is too horrifying for me to accept it as it is. It has got the equal number of pros and cons. The main disadvantage is too spare usage of various colours, and a sadness of the boy. If this image had been painted to be more cheerful and happy, it would have certainly gained larger audience. The very face of the child makes the painting mysterious, but if a story of this portrait is real, then fear and the mystery are increasing to the maximum level. Summing up - this painting is not meant to be favourite to people who like diversity and vast usage of colours. It was created to the joy of those one who enjoy nightmares and the mystery of a different kind.

Natalia Baczewska