Stories of famous paintings. The most mysterious paintings in history
The idea to depict a flowing clock came to Salvador Dali during dinner when he noticed Camembert melting in the sun.
It was later that Dali was asked whether Einstein’s theory of relativity was encrypted on the canvas, and he answered with a smart look: “Rather, Heraclitus’ theory that time is measured by the flow of thought. That’s why I called the painting “The Persistence of Memory.” And first there was cheese, processed cheese.”"The Last Supper"
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he paid special attention to two figures: Christ and Judas. Leonardo found a model for the face of Jesus relatively quickly - a young man who sang in a church choir took his role. But Leonardo searched for a face capable of expressing the vice of Judas for three years. One day, while walking down the street, the master saw a drunkard in a gutter. Da Vinci brought the drunkard to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him.
When the drunk sobered up, he remembered that several years ago he had already posed for an artist. This was the same singer. In Leonardo's great fresco, Jesus and Judas have the same face.
"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan"
In 1913, a mentally ill artist slashed Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” with a knife. It was only thanks to the masterful work of restorers that the painting was restored. Ilya Repin himself came to Moscow and redrew Grozny’s head in a strange purple color - over two decades, the artist’s ideas about painting have changed greatly. Restorers removed these edits and returned the painting to an exact match of its museum photographs. Repin, seeing the restored canvas later, did not notice the corrections.
"Dream"
In 2006, American collector Steve Wynn agreed to sell Pablo Picasso's "The Dream" for $139 million, which would be one of the highest prices in history. But when talking about the painting, he waved his arms too expressively and tore the art with his elbow. Wynn regarded this as a sign from above and decided not to sell the painting after the restoration, which, by the way, cost a pretty penny.
"Boat"
A less destructive, but no less curious incident happened with a painting by Henri Matisse. In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the master’s painting “The Boat” to the audience. The exhibition was a success. But only seven weeks later, a casual art connoisseur noticed that the masterpiece was hanging upside down. During this time, 115 thousand people managed to see the art, and the review book was replenished with hundreds of admiring comments. The embarrassment spread across all the newspapers.
"Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night"
The famous “Black Square” was not the first painting of its kind. 22 years before Malevich, in 1893, the French artist and writer Allais Alphonse exhibited his masterpiece “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” - an all-black rectangular canvas - at the Vivien Gallery.
"Feast of the Gods on Olympus"
In the 1960s One of the most famous paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus,” was found in Prague. For a long time, the date of its writing remained a mystery. The answer was found in the picture itself, moreover, by astronomers. They guessed that the positions of the planets were subtly encrypted on the canvas. For example, the Duke of Mantua Gonzaga in the image of the god Jupiter, Poseidon with the Sun and the goddess Venus with Cupid reflect the position of Jupiter, Venus and the Sun in the Zodiac.
In addition, it is clear that Venus is heading towards the constellation Pisces. Meticulous stargazers calculated that such a rare position of the planets in the sky was observed on the days of the winter solstice in 1602. Thus, a fairly accurate dating of the picture was carried out.
"Breakfast on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Claude Monet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are confused not only by current art school applicants - even their contemporaries confused them. Both lived in Paris at the end of the 19th century, communicated with each other and were almost namesakes. Thus, in the film “Ocean’s Eleven” the following dialogue takes place between the characters of George Clooney and Julia Roberts:
- I always confuse Monet and Manet. I only remember that one of them married his mistress.
- Monet.
- So Mane had syphilis.
- And they both wrote from time to time.
But the artists had little confusion with names; in addition, they actively borrowed ideas from each other. After Manet presented the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” to the public, Monet, without thinking twice, painted his own with the same name. As usual, there was some confusion.
"Sistine Madonna"
When looking at Raphael’s painting “The Sistine Madonna,” it is clearly visible that Pope Sixtus II has six fingers on his hand. Among other things, the name Sixtus translates as “sixth,” which ultimately gave rise to a lot of theories. In fact, the “lower little finger” is not a finger at all, but part of the palm. It's noticeable if you look closely. No mysticism and secret harbingers of the Apocalypse for you, it’s a pity.
"Morning in a pine forest"
The bear cubs from Shishkin’s painting “Morning in a Pine Forest”, printed by confectioners, are not at all the work of Shishkin. Ivan was an excellent landscape painter, he brilliantly knew how to convey the play of light and shadow in the forest, but he was not good at people and animals. So, at the artist’s request, the cute bear cubs were painted by Konstantin Savitsky, and the picture itself was signed with two names. But Pavel Tretyakov, after purchasing the landscape for his collection, erased Savitsky’s signature, and all the laurels went to Shishkin.
Works of art that everyone knows often contain unknown, fascinating stories.
Kazimir Malevich was the sixth artist to paint a black square, Shishkin co-wrote his “Morning in a Pine Forest,” Dali suffered a serious psychosexual trauma, and Pablo Picasso survived after a bold response to the Gestapo. We admire the beauty of the greatest paintings, but the stories that happened before, during or after the painting of masterpieces often remain beyond our attention. And completely in vain. Sometimes such stories allow you to better understand the artist or simply be amazed at the quirkiness of life and creativity.
Bright Side has collected in this material the most interesting and unknown stories about great paintings.
"Black Square", Kazimir Malevich
Malevich's "Black Square" - one of the most famous and discussed works of art - is not such an innovation.
Artists have been experimenting with the color “all black” since the 17th century. The first solidly black work of art called The Great Darkness was painted by Robert Fludd in 1617, followed by Bertal in 1843 with his work View of La Hougue (Under the Cover of Night). More than two hundred years later. And then almost without interruption - “The Twilight History of Russia” by Gustave Dore in 1854, “Night Fight of Negroes in a Cellar” by Paul Bilhold in 1882, a completely plagiarized “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” by Alphonse Allais. And only in 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his “Black Suprematist Square” to the public, which is exactly what the painting is called in its entirety. And it is his painting that is known to everyone, while others are known only to art historians.
Malevich himself painted at least four versions of his “Black Suprematist Square”, differing in design, texture and color, in the hope of finding absolute “weightlessness” and flight of forms.
"The Scream", Edvard Munch
As with Black Square, there are four versions of Scream in the world. Two versions are painted in oil and two in pastel.
There is an opinion that Munch, who suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, wrote it several times in an attempt to take out all the suffering that gripped his soul. And it is possible that there would have been more strange little people screaming from unbearable torment if the artist had not gone to the clinic. After the course of treatment, he never again tried to reproduce his “Scream”, which became a cult classic.
"Guernica", Pablo Picasso
The huge fresco painting “Guernica,” painted by Picasso in 1937, tells the story of a raid by a Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the city of six thousand was completely destroyed. The painting was painted literally in a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours and already in the first sketches one could see the main idea.
This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief. Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, brutality, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. And the most interesting moment in connection with this picture occurred in 1940, when Picasso was summoned by the Gestapo in Paris. “Did you do this?” the Nazis asked him. “No, you did it.”
"The Great Masturbator", Salvador Dali
In a film with a strange and arrogant title even for our time, there is actually no challenge to society. The artist actually depicted his subconscious and confessed to the viewer.
The canvas depicts his wife Gala, whom he loved passionately; the locusts, which he was terrified of; fragment of a man with cut knees, ants and other symbols of passion, fear and disgust.
The origins of this picture (but primarily the origins of his strange disgust and at the same time craving for sex) lie in the fact that as a child, Salvador Dali looked through a book about venereal diseases that his father accidentally left behind.
"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581", Ilya Repin
The historical canvas, telling the viewer about a dramatic moment in the history of our country, was in fact inspired not so much by the fact of the murder of his son and heir by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, but by the murder of Alexander II by terrorist revolutionaries, and - most unexpectedly - bullfighting in Spain. The artist wrote about what he saw: “Misfortune, living death, murder and blood constitute an attractive force... And I, having probably become infected with this bloodiness, upon arriving home, immediately set to work on the bloody scene.”
"Morning in a pine forest", Ivan Shishkin
The masterpiece, familiar to every Soviet child from its breathtakingly delicious and scarce candies, belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he wanted. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky painted perhaps the best bears in the history of Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the picture “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about the creative method peculiar to Shishkin.”
Bill Stoneham "Hands Resist Him"
1972
This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.
There are legends surrounding the painting with a boy, a doll and his hands pressed against the glass. From “people are dying because of this picture” to “the children in it are alive.” The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and speculation among people with weak psyches.
The artist insisted that the painting depicted himself at the age of five, that the door represented the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll was a guide who could guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.
The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was listed for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was “haunted.” “Hands Resist Him” was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters with creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.
On December 3, 1961, a significant event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - Matisse’s painting “The Boat,” which had been hanging upside down for 46 days, was properly rehung. It is worth saying that this is not an isolated funny incident associated with paintings by great artists.
Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes
Once, one of Pablo Picasso’s acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “Sorry, but I can’t understand this. Such things simply don’t exist.” To which Picasso retorted: “You don’t even understand Chinese. But it still exists." However, many did not understand Picasso. Once he invited the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, to paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but before he could sit down in a chair to pose, the artist announced that everything was ready.
Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, because not even 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied: “I have known you for 40 years. And all these 40 years I have been learning to paint portraits in 5 minutes.”
Ilya Repin helped sell a painting he didn't paint
One lady bought at the market for only 10 rubles a completely mediocre painting, on which the signature “I. Repin” proudly flaunted. When the art connoisseur showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and added “This is not Repin” and signed his autograph. After some time, an enterprising lady sold a painting by an unknown artist with the autograph of the great master for 100 rubles.
The bears in Shishkin’s famous painting were painted by another artist
There is an unspoken law among artists - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite stories and strengths, but also weaknesses, so why not help each other. Thus, it is known for certain that for the painting “Pushkin on the Seashore” by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was drawn by Repin, and for Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki" the lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass and needle in his paintings, could not create bears when creating the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest.” That’s why Savitsky painted the bears for Shishkin’s famous painting.
A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings
The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Pollock's Number 5, 1948. At one auction the painting went for $140 million. This may seem funny, but the artist didn’t really “bother” with the creation of this painting: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard laid out on the floor.
Rubens encrypted the date of creation of his painting using the stars.
For a long time, art historians and scientists could not establish the date of creation of one of Rubens’s most famous paintings - the painting “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus”. The mystery was resolved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were located in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.
The Chupa Chups logo was drawn by the world famous surrealist
In 1961, Enrique Bernata, owner of the Chupa Chups company, asked artist Salvador Dali to come up with an image for a candy wrapper. Dali fulfilled the request. Today this image, although in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the company's lollipops.
It is worth noting that in 1967 in Italy, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released with illustrations by Salvador Dali.
The most expensive painting Flour brings misfortune
Munch's "The Scream" was sold at auction for $120 million and is the artist's most expensive painting today. They say that Munch, whose life path was a series of tragedies, put so much grief into it that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.
One of the Munch Museum employees once accidentally dropped a painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches, which led this man to suicide. Another museum employee, who was unable to hold onto the painting, was involved in a terrible car accident just a few minutes later. And a museum visitor who allowed himself to touch the painting, after some time, burned alive in a fire. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.
Malevich's "Black Square" has an "older brother"
“Black Square,” which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a canvas 79.5 * 79.5 centimeters, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allais, a French humorist writer, painted his “black square”. True, Allais’s painting was called “Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night.”
Christ and Judas in Da Vinci's painting have the same face
They say that the creation of the painting “The Last Supper” required titanic efforts from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist quickly found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted. One of the church choir singers took this role. But da Vinci searched for “Judas” for three years.
Once on the street the artist saw a drunkard who was unsuccessfully trying to get out of a cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to draw. Imagine the artist’s surprise when, having opened up his thoughts, the drunkard admitted that he had already posed for him several years ago. It turned out that this was the same singer.
Italian scientists say they have found remains that may belong to Lisa del Giocondo. Perhaps the secret of the Mona Lisa will be revealed. In honor of this, let's remember the most mysterious paintings in history.
1. Gioconda
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to mysterious paintings or mystery paintings is the “Mona Lisa”, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1505. Gruye wrote that this picture can drive anyone crazy who, having looked at it enough, begins to talk about it.
There are many “mysteries” in this work of da Vinci. Art critics write dissertations on the tilt of Mona Lisa's hand, medical specialists make diagnoses (from the fact that Mona Lisa has no front teeth to the fact that Mona Lisa is a man). There is even a version that Gioconda is a self-portrait of the artist.
By the way, the painting gained particular popularity only in 1911, when it was stolen by the Italian Vincenzo Peruggio. They found him using his fingerprint. So “Mona Lisa” also became the first success of fingerprinting, and a huge success in marketing the art market.
2. Black square
Everyone knows that the “Black Square” is not actually black, nor is it a square. It's really not a square. In the catalog for the exhibition, it was stated by Malevich as a “quadrangle”. And really not black. The artist did not use black paint.
It is less known that Malevich considered “Black Square” his best work. When the artist was buried, “Black Square” (1923) stood at the head of the coffin, Malevich’s body was covered with a white canvas with a sewn square, a black square was also painted on the lid of the coffin. Even the train and the back of the truck had black squares on them.
3. Scream
What is mysterious about the painting “The Scream” is not that it supposedly has a heavy influence on people, forcing them to almost commit suicide, but that this painting is essentially realism for Edvard Munch, who at the time of writing this masterpiece suffered from manic depression. depressive psychosis. He even recalled exactly how he saw what he wrote.
“I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fiord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature.”
4. Guernica
Picasso painted Guernica in 1937. The painting is dedicated to the bombing of the city of Guernica. They say that when Picasso was called to the Gestapo in 1940 and asked about Guernica: “Did you do this?”, the artist replied: “No, you did this.”
Picasso painted a huge fresco in no more than a month, working 10-12 hours a day. “Guernica” is considered a reflection of the horror of fascism and inhuman cruelty. Those who have seen the picture with their own eyes claim that it creates anxiety and sometimes panic.
5. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan
We all know the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan,” usually calling it “Ivan the Terrible kills his son.”
Meanwhile, Ivan Vasilyevich’s murder of his heir is a very controversial fact. So, in 1963, the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Research has made it possible to claim that Tsarevich John was poisoned.
The poison content in his remains is many times higher than the permissible limit. Interestingly, the same poison was found in the bones of Ivan Vasilyevich. Scientists have concluded that the royal family was the victim of poisoners for several decades.
Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son. This is precisely the version adhered to, for example, by the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. Seeing Repin’s famous painting at the exhibition, he was outraged and wrote to Emperor Alexander III: “The painting cannot be called historical, since this moment... is purely fantastic.” The version of the murder was based on the stories of the papal legate Antonio Possevino, who can hardly be called a disinterested person.
There was once a real assassination attempt on the painting.
On January 16, 1913, twenty-nine-year-old Old Believer icon painter Abram Balashov stabbed her three times, after which Ilya Repin had to virtually paint the faces of the Ivanovs depicted in the painting anew. After the incident, the then curator of the Tretyakov Gallery Khruslov, having learned about the vandalism, threw himself under the train.
6. Hands resist him
The painting by Bill Stoneham, painted in 1972, has, frankly, not the best reputation. According to information on E-bay, the painting was found in a landfill some time after its purchase. On the very first night that the painting ended up in the house of the family that found it, the daughter ran to her parents in tears, complaining that “the children in the painting are fighting.”
Since that time, the painting has had a very bad reputation. Kim Smith, who bought it in 2000, constantly receives angry letters demanding that he burn the painting. The newspapers also wrote that ghosts sometimes appear in the hills of California, like two peas in a pod like the children from Stoneham’s painting.
7. Portrait of Lopukhina
Finally, the “bad picture” - the portrait of Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky in 1797, after some time began to have a bad reputation. The portrait depicted Maria Lopukhina, who died shortly after the portrait was painted. People began to say that the picture “takes away one’s youth” and even “takes one to the grave.”
It is not known for certain who started such a rumor, but after Pavel Tretyakov “fearlessly” acquired the portrait for his gallery, talk about the “mystery of the painting” subsided.