The painter of the Crying Boys painting: Who is Bruno Amadio?
He painted the Crying Boy painting, which was very popular in England in the 1980s. Amadio, who earned his living by selling paintings to tourists in Venice, has 27 known paintings.
Amadio was born on January 15, 1911, in Venice, Italy. Also known as Franchot Seville, Angelo Bragolin, and Giovanni Bragolin.
He was an academically trained painter who worked as a painter and restorer in post-war Venice, producing paintings of the Crying Boy for tourists. These paintings, consisting of sullen and tearful children, have become the subject of an urban legend that they are cursed. Pictures that cause a person's house to burn are the focus of this legend.
Bruno Amadio (9 November 1911 – 22 September 1981), popularly known as Bragolin, and also known as Angelo Bragolin and Giovanni Bragolin, was the creator of the group of paintings known as Crying Boys. The paintings feature a variety of tearful children looking morosely straight ahead. They are sometimes called "Gypsy boys" although there is nothing specifically linking them to the Romani people.
The "Crying Boy" painting has become an urban legend. Although the teary-eyed innocent boy, who sold millions of copies worldwide, was loved from the beginning, he fell victim to the cunning of the British press and was labeled "sinister" and "cursed". Thousands of them were destroyed, and it was claimed that they brought fires, deaths, and diseases to every house they entered.
"Crying Boys", one of the cheap paintings that have no artistic value and are mass-produced for mass consumption, bears the signature of Italian painter Bruno Amadio. Amadio, who earned his living by selling paintings to tourists in Venice, has 27 known paintings. Hundreds of different versions of the painting, which began to travel around the world in the 1950s, were produced. The child, who was originally hazel-eyed and brunette, became blonde and blue-eyed. The model of his jacket changed many times, patched, tattered, with a scarf, very stylish, etc. He changed his gender and became a girl. His age has been reduced or enlarged. It has gone through many evolutions to suit every country, every student, every taste. The only thing that did not change were his tears and his heartbreaking, pathetic looks.
Bruno Amadio died of esophageal cancer on September 22, 1981, in Padova, Italy, at the age of 70.
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Bruno Amadio: The Mystery of the ‘Crying Boys’ Cursed Paintings
https://culturacolectiva.com/en/art/crying-boys-cursed-paintings-story/