Top 10 Normal Looking Paintings With Disturbing Backstories

Top 10 Normal-Looking Paintings with Disturbing Backstories

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Normal-Looking Paintings with Disturbing Backstories.

For this list, we’ll be looking at paintings you may or may not be familiar with that have darker origins and meanings than you might think.

What is your favorite painting? Does it have an interesting backstory? Let us know in the comments!

#10: “The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke”

Richard Dadd
Artists and mental health issues seem to go hand in hand quite often. Richard Dadd was known for his meticulously detailed, fantastical style. However, his personal life was wrought with psychological woes. In 1843, upon returning from a trip on which he had had a mental breakdown, Dadd slowly became convinced that his father was the Devil, and ended up murdering him. He was then caught and institutionalized. He continued to paint despite this and was in the process of painting “The Fairy-Feller’s Master-Stroke” for a hospital official when he was transferred. It is thus unfinished. Upon close inspection, the inner turmoils of Dadd can perhaps be detected in some of the finer details.

#9: “The Ambassadors”

Hans Holbein the Younger
“The Ambassadors” is an interesting piece and has been subject to much speculation throughout the centuries since it was painted. It depicts two friends, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, both French diplomats. The two were on an assignment to reconcile Henry VIII with the church when the portrait was commissioned. Though the image initially appears to simply show two friends, the symbols within tell a different story. The instruments and items behind the pair represent both sides of the reconciliatory argument where the lute with a broken string represents a rift or discord between them. The lower-centered distorted image (or anamorphosis) viewed from the correct angle shows a human skull - perhaps a reminder that mortality conquers all in the end.

#8: “Self-Portrait with Monkey”

Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo’s works appear as bright, vivid self-portraits heavily influenced by the Mexicanidad movement, a Mexican cultural revival following the revolution. There is, however, a deeper symbolism to Kahlo’s works. Though we could look at any number of her pieces, let’s focus on her self-portraits with monkeys, of which she painted eight. Kahlo had a number of pet monkeys at her home in Coyoacán. She herself admitted that the monkeys replaced the children she could not have - Kahlo’s serious injuries following a bus accident in 1925 had rendered her infertile. Kahlo was also interested in Aztec history, and monkeys were recognized in Aztec beliefs as fertility symbols. All this makes us look a little differently at these portraits, really bringing a certain sadness to them.

#7: “The Lovers II”

René Magritte
Though Magritte himself denied any correlation between his use of shrouded faces and a traumatic childhood experience, we can’t deny the probable influence. When Magritte was 14, his mother took her own life by drowning. Young Magritte witnessed her body being taken out of the water with her nightgown shrouding her face. The artist produced a number of paintings featuring shrouded or obscured faces, leading us to believe the image was firmly planted in his mind. In this example, “The Lovers,”, a couple is depicted sharing a kiss while their faces are obscured behind white sheets. The symbolism is open to interpretation, as Magritte did not reveal the motivations behind his works, wishing to leave them subjective. The “love is blind” theme is frequently recognized here.

#6: “Portrait with Bandaged Ear”

Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh was plagued with mental health issues throughout his life, and this self-portrait represents one of his most infamous fits. When he was roommates with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, the two got into an argument and Van Gogh had a mental seizure and threatened his fellow artist with a razor. Unfortunately, he only injured himself with said razor, slicing off a piece of his own left ear, which he then presented as a gift to a local lady of the night. He claimed to have no recollection of the episode. Van Gogh painted many self-portraits, but the couple featuring the bandaged ear (on the right side in paintings due to using a mirror while painting) symbolize the darker, psychological side of a troubled man, whether intentional or not.

#5: “Black Triptychs”

Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was, like some aforementioned artists, careful not to adhere meaning or stories to any of his works. He did, however, admit to narrative in his “Black Triptychs,” particularly “Triptych–August 1972” and “Triptych, May–June 1973.” Bacon had a romantic relationship with George Dyer, a man of unfortunate upbringing. Dyer became his artistic model and lover in the 1960s, though the relationship was ill-fated, mainly due to Dyer’s alcoholism. Dyer took his own life in an adjacent, connected hotel room in 1971 while Bacon was at the opening of his art retrospective. The “Black Triptychs” depict the way in which Dyer was found - one from the perspective of Dyer’s room, one from Bacon’s side. The paintings are admittedly a catharsis for Bacon’s emotional grief.

#4: “Two Tahitian Women”

Paul Gauguin
Sometimes, the darker parts of artist biographies are glossed over in favor of artistic praise. Paul Gauguin produced a large number of paintings during his time in Tahiti that featured bright colors, stunning vivid landscapes, alluring locals, and what the artist called a “primitive paradise.” However, the women depicted in the paintings were not always simply Gauguin’s muses; they were also his mistresses. In his time in Tahiti, Gauguin infected a large female population with syphilis, including three child brides. He named his home the “House of Pleasure,” took strolls with an erect-penis-handled walking stick, had a second-floor room plastered with lewd photographs, and so on. This makes us look at the women in paintings such as “Two Tahitian Women” a little differently.

#3: “Judith Slaying Holofernes”

Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter and a highly talented artist influenced primarily by Caravaggio. The majority of her works feature images from myth and religion. “Judith Slaying Holofernes” depicts the biblical story of Judith, who infiltrated the Assyrian army during the war with Palestine in order to take the life of General Holofernes. The painting is often seen as a sort of self-portrait, as Artemisia was sexually assaulted by family friend and painter Agostino Tassi, after which she threatened him with a knife for taking her honor. A closer look at the painting reveals that Judith wears a bracelet featuring the goddess Artemis, who guarded her virginity diligently and violently retaliated against anyone who threatened it.

#2: “The Ghent Altarpiece”

Hubert & Jan van Eyck
The Ghent Altarpiece was commissioned by Ghent, Belgium’s mayor Jodocus Vijd and his wife Lysbette in the 1420s, and completed by 1432. It is a twelve-piece installment depicting religious figures, scenes, and symbols. The piece has a volatile history. In the 16th century, the great iconoclasm or Beeldenstorm, a movement to destroy religious iconography, would have seen the destruction of the Altarpiece had it not been for rapid clergymen hiding it. In 1781, Roman Emperor Joseph II viewed the piece, and declared the nudity of Adam and Eve to be offensive, causing those panels to be removed. It was also historically dismantled and separated, cut in half, narrowly survived a fire, was bricked into a wall, stolen, nearly blown up… it is currently in restoration.

#1: “The Charnel House”

Pablo Picasso
In 1937, Picasso painted “Guernica,” a depiction of the bombing aftermath of a small village during the Spanish Civil War. It’s an aggressive vision of chaos and a poignant anti-war statement. Around 1944, the artist painted something of a sequel to “Guernica” in “Charnel House.” Picasso was said to be apolitical, in that he did not concern himself with political affairs. However, the Civil War changed that, and his reaction is clear in the two pieces. “Charnel House” depicts a Republican family who was murdered in their home during World War II, turning (according to Picasso) their family home into a “charnel house” meaning a storage vault for bodies. Though the piece may initially not look striking, proper observation reveals the grotesque nature of the subject matter within.