Comments | little_details: Killer Art/ Deaths of Artists

argosy in little_details

Killer Art/ Deaths of Artists

Jun 15, 2009 11:03

I'm looking for two things:

1. True, historical, or legendary stories of people being killed by art. I'm mostly being very literal here--paintings or sculptures falling on people and so on, poisoned paint--but if you know a story of a painting causing a riot or so on, or a famous painting being cursed, I'd like to hear that too ( Read more... )

~arts: visual arts

Comments 59

elf_wannabe88 June 15 2009, 23:58:22 UTC

First thing that pops into my head is Edgar Allan Poe's The Oval Portrait: http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/poe.htm#OP

Summary: Artist keeps his beautiful, vibrant, nature-loving wife cramped up in a room for days at a time so that he can capture the essence of her. As he puts the final brushstroke on the painting and exclaims "This is indeed Life itself!" she falls over dead.

It's one of my favorite Poe stories.

dagonell June 16 2009, 00:07:59 UTC

I've heard of concert harpists killed on stage when a major string snapped. Does that count? I believe there was also a juggler who was juggling cannonballs and fractured his own skull.
-- Dagonell

randomstasis June 16 2009, 00:13:06 UTC

interesting question ( ... )

sospan_fach June 16 2009, 00:25:10 UTC

2. Unusual deaths or murders of famous artists. Again, legendary or apocryphal stories are completely acceptable.

Jean-Paul Marat? First one which sprang to my mind. :)

reconditarmonia June 16 2009, 02:14:15 UTC

...but he's not an artist.

sospan_fach June 16 2009, 02:23:42 UTC

:blinks:

No. He wasn't. And I know he wasn't, so I'm now trying to work out just why on earth I apparently thought he was just now...

Well :shuffles feet: this is embarrassing. :/

Apologies, OP. Need more coffee and a crash course in French history. And thanks, reconditarmonia. :)

reconditarmonia June 16 2009, 02:30:36 UTC

Possibly because more people know the painting of his death than know who he actually was in life? It's one of those things - he's entered mass consciousness as an "art" figure.

Thread 5

argentla June 16 2009, 00:33:58 UTC

One of my friend's college professors was so dumbstruck by the Nike of Samothrace in the Louvre years ago that she stumbled backwards, fell down a flight of stairs, and broke her leg...

argentla June 16 2009, 07:01:23 UTC

And that's a *long* flight of stairs!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/18253937_72f30ec0ef.jpg

Weren't there any tourists in the way to break her fall, or did they all courteously stand aside???