The Haunted Portrait
Amazing happenings at art school
Picture of a dead girl which refuses to remain in its frame
From our own correspondent, London, Tuesday.
A psychic manifestation is said to be the cause of a curious incident at Heatherleys Art School, London, where the picture of a fascinating young art student who died not long ago in tragic circumstances refuses to remain in its frame – a type of frame, by the way, which the girl, now dead, had always abhorred.
Mrs Massey, the wife of the principal of the school, said to me today that the peculiar part of the affair is that the picture, when placed in the frame, cannot be withdrawn until the frame is removed at least four inches away from the wall; yet, on four separate occasions, after being placed in its position before the school was closed for the day, the picture was found next morning on the floor and the frame in its original position intact. “I can understand the phenomenon,” said Mrs Massey, “because I am interested in psychology myself, and so was the young lady who was the subject of the picture. She was a very intelligent girl, and studed psychological matters very closely. After her death we found her portrait in the studio, and, having a frame that exactly fitted the picture, we fixed the latter in it. It is a frame specially manufactured for war memorial pictures. The frame has a slot in it to hold the canvas stretcher and was fitted into a niche on the wall so that it was held flush with the plaster.
“The first time we found the picture on the floor we thought it had been carelessly fixed and that it had dropped out on that account. On the second occasion we carefully tested the frame and found that, as I say, it had to be pulled four inches away from the wall in order to get the picture out of it. Four times we placed it in the frame and each time we found it on the floor again.
“After this we began to think and remembered that the girl had said that she wished her portrait would never be placed in one of those memorial frames. She did not like them, she declared. I feel sure that the intention of the manifestation is clear and we have not placed the picture in the frame again. It is now hung elsewhere.”
Liverpool Echo, 8th December 1925.