A haunted painting called ‘The Anguished Man’ is said to cause Paranormal activity. It is currently in the home of Sean Robinson, a resident of Cumbria, England.
This is a popular story of an oil painting called “The Anguished Man” that is said to cause Paranormal activity in the home of its owner, Sean Robinson. Let us analyze the story and its authenticity in detail.
The Claim in Detail
In 2010, Sean Robinson, a resident of Cumbria, England reported strange activity in his home that he blamed on an oil painting known as “The Anguished Man” and set up a camera to share the paranormal activity on YouTube. Since 2010, Sean Robinson has been sharing these paranormal activities and updates of the “The Anguished Man” oil painting in his YouTube channel. The video that comes with the main story was uploaded in December 2011.
According to his story, when he was a young boy, Sean Robinson saw the odd-looking oil painting in his grandmother’s home, and he was drawn to it by a mysterious force. After he inherited “The Anguished Man” painting from his grandmother, after several years, Sean said he put the painting on the wall of his home, which is when the paranormal activity started. There was the belief from the times of his grandmother that the painting was possessed by an unknown spirit (or cursed). Sean, along with his wife and son have reported they experienced strange noises and visuals, like doors cracking in the middle of the night, screams coming from nowhere and scary nightmares. When he realized the cause of the paranormal activity in his home was the oil painting, he supposedly investigated into its origin and found some disturbing aspects.
Sean Robinson says the artist who painted “The Anguished Man” mixed his own blood with the oil paint, and had committed suicide shortly after completing it. Some paranormal believers said that artists often desire to ‘live on’ with their work. In May 2013, the Anguished Man painting was taken to Chillingham Castle, which is marketed as the most haunted castle in Britain, where there was a supposed interaction between the spirits, and was witnessed by over twenty paranormal investigators. Although Sean Robinson’s story of The Anguished Man became widely popular, there are certain aspects that question its authenticity.
Flaws and Questions
The paranormal activity videos shared by Sean Robinson on YouTube in “Film and Animation” category have some nice, haunting background music added to them.
Despite the unexplained activity in his home, and the threat to his family after his son was supposedly pushed down the stairs by an unknown force, the painting remains in Sean’s basement and he is unwilling to sell it. As reported by TimesAndStar.co.uk, film and television companies as far away as Japan wanted to do documentaries on the paranormal activities surrounding the “The Anguished Man” painting, and the family was offered $32,000 for the artwork, but they did not sell it. Keeping the painting in their cellar, they want to live with something that scares them! As strange as the painting looks!
In Weird or What Show
The paranormal story of “The Anguished Man” painting was featured in July 2012 show (Season 03 Episode 06) of Weird or What series on the Discovery Channel and History (Canada). Titled “Ghosts In The Machine,” the part of the show questioned whether the painting was really possessed by its deceased painter and is haunting its owners.
In the below video of Weird or What show, you can watch the story of Sean Robinson starting from timeframe 15:35. After analyzing the strange claims, Mike St. Clair, a paranormal investigator on the show said there are number of tricks to create ghostly effects, like using strings and then hide them with editing, or poor quality video recording and low lighting. They replicate the incident of door closing using simple strings that are invisible to a low quality camera in low light scene.
Considering the aforementioned flaws, the gullible claims, the lack of strong evidence of any paranormal activity, the strange stories of Sean Robinson about “The Anguished Man” painting are possibly hoax. Critics said that all this is nothing more than a creation of Sean Robinson’s imagination. It is also possible that the painting has been created as part of an elaborate hoax, the precise truth of which may be revealed with time.
Hoax or Fact: