Many people are familiar with the portraits of the crying boys.
It's a retro icon for some of us, for others it's a symbol for bad luck.
There are many myths about the paintings. One of them tells the story about Don Bonillo; one of the most famous portraits in the series;
The paintings of the Crying Boys are made by Bruno Amadio (1911 - 1981), also known as Alexander or Giavanni Bragolin or Franchot Seville.
He painted portraits of orphans at the San Marco square in Venice and sold them to tourist. After the war he fled to Spain.
He came across a boy named Don Bonillo, an orphan who didn't speak at all and who saw his parents die in a house fire.
Amadio decided to adopt the boy, despite the advice of the local priest to not do it. He told the painter that everywhere the boy went, fires would break out mysteriously and that the people of the village named him 'Diablo' (devil in Spanish) because of that.
The sale of his paintings went well and Amadio was making good money. Until one day he finds his house and studio completely burned to the ground!
His finger automatically points at Don Bonillo, who runs away and is never been seen again.
In 1976 a car hits a wall, just outside Barcelona, explodes and turns into a fire ball. The driver's body couldn't be identified, but the driver license in the glove compartment stayed untouched. The name on the license was... Don Bonillo.
After this a lot of stories about mysterious house fires from across Europe pop op. All of the burned houses had a painting of the Crying Boy on the wall, but all of the portraits remained intact during the fire.
Myth or not, we think the portraits have great iconic value and we're happy to have them in our collection!
Don Bonillo
A portrait in the serie "Crying Boys"
A portrait in the serie "Crying Boys"
