thesun.co.uk – Article By: Steve Punt. In a chilling story that gripped the nation in 1985, the Yorkshire home of Ron and May Hall was gutted by fire – but their painting of a crying boy remained unscathed. Hundreds more people went on to report experiences of house fires where a Crying Boy painting had survived. Now comedian STEVE PUNT has re-examined the “curse” for his Radio 4 programme Punt PI, in which he investigates quirky unsolved mysteries.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, George Michael was a bouffant-haired pop god, David Cameron had just started at university – and Britain was in the grip of the Curse Of The Crying Boy. From all over the country came reports of house fires in which a picture of a tearful child was unscathed.
I remembered reading the story at the time and wanted to investigate whether anyone had ever solved the mystery.
I tracked one of the pictures down. Recession has clearly struck the art world because it was only a tenner.
I then talked to Kelvin MacKenzie – Editor of The Sun in 1985 who urged readers to send in their paintings before organising a bonfire – about what made the story so interesting.
The crucial factor, it seemed, was that it was a Yorkshire fireman, not a regular member of the public, who had noticed the unburnt painting and claimed that this was not the first time they had seen it survive a fire.
By this time I had realised that it wasn’t just that the Crying Boy was involved in the fires – there were also rumours that it had STARTED them. How could that happen?
I talked to art expert Tim Marlow. He’s not a big fan of the Crying Boy but did recognise the name of the artist, Bragolin, who died in 1981 and created a series of Crying Boy paintings for tourists in post-war Venice.
It didn’t fit with the extraordinary tale that has appeared on the internet since the original story 25 years ago.
This version claims that the boy in the painting was an orphan whose parents had died in a fire. He was taken in by the painter despite warnings that he was a firestarter – a child who can burn things without touching them.
The artist’s studio caught fire and he was ruined. The boy ran away – and ten years later a car crashed in flames on the outskirts of Barcelona.
The driver died in the crash, the online story goes, but a driving licence found inside showed it was the orphan boy.
This story is, of course, too good to be true. And even if the child himself could start fires, that’s not the same as a painting of him starting fires, let alone 50,000 copies.
It didn’t, to be honest, seem very likely. But was it true that the picture didn’t burn? I went to the Building Research Establishment – a laboratory near Watford where they set things on fire for research purposes.
The result was a little surprising. A flame put immediately in front of the painting did set fire to a corner of the frame but only burnt around the outer edge of the child’s profile before petering out.
But it turns out there is a reason why paintings often survive fires relatively undamaged: It is to do with the string on the back burning through first.
The painting falls face-down, giving it protection from smoke and heat.
It’s easy to see how the Crying Boy became such a phenomenon. It has all the ingredients of a great spooky story.
An eerie child, a rash of fires, a mysterious artist, a “supernatural” ability to survive flames… and a newspaper with an eye for a good story.
Many people were spooked and wanted to be rid of them but Kelvin MacKenzie thinks there is another reason why the paintings flooded in.
He reckons many came from couples where one person had never liked the picture anyway – and saw a good opportunity to get rid of it.
I remember looking at pictures of my 4th year birthday party and seeing one frame that included this painting in the background… It was hung behind me offset to the right. There was only one picture of it, i remember. I tried looking for it when i was about 15. I couldnt locate it anywhere… Apperantly my grandmother tried to find several ways to get rid of it. The house ended up buring down, and according to several priests or “religious figures”, they told her that if they turned up upside-down, they would see the face of the devil.
I really dont know how much truth there is to this, but i sure know how i felt when i looked into this painting. i wanted to relive that feeling through the picture of my birthday, but i still have no found it.
It’s funny, as I read your comment I looked at the picture with my head at an angle to try to see the face of the devil…
… I need more sleep!
I have had a copy of this painting in my room for over 20 years. It was bought in the Azores, Portugal in the mid 1980s during a family reunion trip. I only found out about the story of the curse in the last few years. I never had any bad vibes from the painting, I just always felt it was an interesting painting.
I do recall it was in a lot of homes throughout my childhood– it is indeed a very strange almost macabre fascination people had with an image of a crying child against a dreary background with the boy draped in a black cloke (colors did probaby faded and shifted with so many cheap reprints.) I think though the painting simply reminds people of childhood and the endearing nature of children and the innocence of their tears. I’ve never suffered any bad luck while having this painting. I also like it because it reminds me of the 80s since it was like an early meme and now pop culture kitsch.
I do see how it may be fire-resistant, leading to the urban legends. The copy of I have is a thick enamel-laquered piece of dense particle board wood (no frame) with the painting print glued on (starting to peel). With so many copies destroyed, perhaps it will be worth something someday if the lore surrounding also survives.
We had the painting of ‘the crying boy’ in our house and I remember looking at it for hours together in my childhood days.i used to stare at it for hours together and something made me feel the boy in d picture felt very lonely.I don’t recon how i was able to feel his emotion when i myself was just a child and didn’t understand much about emotions of loneliness!!!I cried hours together in front of d pic!I so remember that it was my Favorite painting and i used to cry in front of d pic almost everyday and it somehow made me feel very very sad!!I remember my Mom telling me that she observed the same and thought it was really weird that I cried so bitterly every time I was close to the pic!!
A few years later we shifted from the old house,however a few relatives stayed back.Things were pretty much normal until the day we herd that one of our relatives got burned and died in a fire that was accidental and d fire burned down the rear part of the house as well!!Now i seem to think if it was accidental or….?? #17th March 2011 at 12:50pm