8 Mysterious paintings whose back stories are full of meanings

Among the works of great painters, there are those that are somewhat “amazing”, which quickly capture our attention. Although nothing bad is being depicted in the images, the lay viewer soon starts to feel goosebumps. This is all because the great plastic artists manage to masterfully manipulate our perception: they exaggerate the proportions, experiment with different perspectives, play with the mise en scène and add details that instigate our curiosity and our feelings.

Often, the perception of a painting is influenced by the story behind it. Thus, seemingly simple paintings become epic works of art, full of meaning. We, from incredible.club, we study the works of some painters who seem to have an “otherworldly” essence. And we decided to share our findings with you. Follow!

Ivan Kramskoy was a master of portraiture, genre and history painting. In this painting, he painted a woman in a nightgown, who seems to have left her house, wandering around with her eyes closed. What happened to her? The state of the character is explained by the title of the painting itself: sleepwalk🇧🇷

O sleep-walking It’s a sleep disorder, where people do a lot of things while they’re sleeping. It could be that her eyes were half open, but it’s as if they were “glazed over”. Following the lines of genre painting, Kramskoy believed that the most important thing in the image was to show that personality and individuality, the inner sides of a person, at one time or another, inevitably stand out and emerge to the surface.

This somewhat haunting and atmospheric watercolor by the British artist illustrates a scene from Carl Theodor Körner’s ghost story, the harp🇧🇷 It tells the story of Edward and Josepha, newlyweds, who loved to spend their evenings playing the flute and harp. But their happiness did not last long: Josepha falls ill and Edward becomes a widower.

In mourning, Edward keeps the room exactly as it was when he was still with Josepha, and one night he decides to enter it to play the flute. Then, suddenly, his wife’s harp begins to play by itself in a faint, flickering light. That was the moment that the painter wanted to portray.

This is a series of four similar paintings. According to one version, the work was inspired by vivid dreams, or the moment of sleep paralysis, which Füssli went through. The painter discovered that these experiences were linked to folkloric beliefs, such as the Germanic tales of demons and witches, who stalked those who slept alone. That’s why, on the island of Terra Nova, sleep paralysis is also known as “old witch syndrome” and, in Brazilian folklore, as the legend of Pisadeira.

Interestingly, this painting may have influenced Mary Shelley, inspiring her to write a scene from her novel Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus. Edgar Allan Poe also mentioned the painter in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher. In it, the protagonist compares a painting hanging in Usher’s house with the work of Füssli and says: “An irresistible tremor took over my body gradually; and finally a load of anxiety settled in my heart.”

The Raphaelite artist’s painting is Inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shallot🇧🇷 The poem tells the story of a girl who is under a curse: she is forced to stay in a tower on the island of Shalott weaving a magical net. She is forbidden to leave the tower and even look out of the window. But there is a huge mirror in the bedroom, which reflects the street and the world outside. One day, then, she sees Sir Lancelot galloping down Camelot, and she gets up to look out of the window. At that moment, the curse kicks in, the tapestry falls apart, and the mirror is cracked.

The heroine realizes the rash act she has committed and runs away from the tower. She finds a boat and heads down the river towards Camelot, singing a mournful and melancholy song. This is the moment portrayed in the artist’s work. The girl already knows what her destiny will be and that she will not be able to reach Camelot, where she could have found happiness and a great love.

The painting depicts a dark angel in the form of a woman speaking to a young girl. The lantern, the wing, embracing the sick girl, and fallen flowers indicate what will happen — giving this image of imminent departure a more mystical and penetrating character.

For fans of the Twin Peaks series, the frame might remind you of the lady with the torso. In fact, the canvas by the French painter illustrates a barefoot female figure with disheveled hair next to a well, holding a tree trunk as if it were a baby. An apparently sentimental moment, but which Hugues transforms into a scene of total despair. The title of the frame reflects the heroine’s state of mind.

The woman’s face is filled with anguish as she cradles not a sleeping child but a tree trunk. Has she lost her child and is she grieving or is she just crazy missing her child? The artist did not come to clarify this question.

This painting was created by the Norwegian painter Aksel Valdemar Johannessen, whose works were only recognized after his death. His paintings offer a glimpse into the profound disturbances of human existence. In the evening it emanates a feeling of hopelessness, fatality, darkness. The artist describes the night as if it were a time of nightmares, hallucinations and human loneliness.

The charcoal painting by the French symbolist Odilon Redon belongs to the so-called “dark period” of his career. Since childhood, the artist had frequent attacks of anxiety and depression. He was fascinated by the human subconscious, including all its phobias, and this was reflected in many of his works.

What painting gave you the most goosebumps? Comment!