The Picture of Dorian Grayby Oscar Wilde
The classic evil portrait tale.
A handsome young innocent, after having his portrait painted, rashly wishes that the picture could age while he remains forever young. But he has unwittingly made a Faustian bargain, and gained eternal youth, but lost his soul.
The Prophetic Picturesby Nathaniel Hawthorne
A brilliant but emotionally detached artist captures the fates as well as the faces of his subjects. He paints the portraits of a newly engaged couple, foreshadowing a tragic future where Walter becomes evil and Elinor is consumed by grief.
Edward Randolph’s Portraitby Nathaniel Hawthorne
On the eve of the American Revolution, from the depths of colonial past, a hated and cursed man comes to haunt the ill-fated British loyalist Governor Hutchinson.
The Cruel Painterby George MacDonald
A gifted college student sets out to win the icy heart of Lilith, the beautiful daughter of an infamous sadistic painter who expresses his dark worldview on canvas by depicting human suffering, torture, and demonic cruelty.
The Oval Portraitby Edgar Allan Poe
An injured man takes refuge in an abandoned Italian chateau. While admiring a surprisingly lifelike oval painting, he reads a book detailing its tragic origin: an obsessed artist inadvertently drained his wife's life to create the masterpiece.
The Miniatureby J. Y. Akerman
The narrator invites his childhood schoolmate, to visit his family mansion. Both men become infatuated with the narrator’s cousin, Maria, leading to a bitter and violent rivalry.
Moods of the Mind: The Old Portraitby Emma Embury
“I tell you my life is full of vague memories of a dark and troubled past” … A painting awakens thoughts of a previous incarnation.
The Story of the Unfinished Pictureby Charles Hooton
The artist makes a pact with a demon: if the artist can finish his next painting within a year, the demon promises to buy it from him and make him wealthy, but if he fails to complete it in a year, he is bound to “go to the woods” with the demon.
The Shadow Of A Shadeby Tom Hood
A young woman’s husband dies on an Arctic expedition. His close friend and murderer returns to propose to the grieving widow, and is faced by a haunted portrait of his victim.
Vampyrby Jan Neruda
A group of travelers notice a quiet, brilliant painter sketching portraits of the hotel guests.The artist sketches them as corpses, and his subjects seem to fall mysteriously ill and die shortly after. This earns him the terrifying nickname "The Vampire."
The Mysterious Sketchby Emile Erckmann & Alexander Chatrian
A starving artist is inexplicably compelled to draw a grisly murder scene. When the victim's face in the sketch matches a real-life homicide, Venius must uncover the supernatural truth to prove his innocence.
The Veiled Portraitby James Grant
Warren married a girl in secret, only to abandon her when a more financially attractive package came his way. Constance eventually hunted her bigamist husband and family down at Meerut on the eve of the massacre of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
The Black Cupidby Lafcadio Hearn
The narrator becomes obsessed with a portrait of a small, dusky cherub. Instead of the traditional angelic figure, this Cupid possesses a strange, uncanny, almost sinister presence that captivates the observer.
The Portraitby Margaret Oliphant
Philip Canning returns from India and becomes increasingly obsessed with a painting of his late mother. The painting’s lifelike gaze compels him to uncover his overbearing father's dark secrets and the truth about his mother's tragic life.
The Portraitby Nikolai Gogol
A talented, impoverished artist buys a disturbing painting of a malevolent old moneylender. Finding hidden gold inside it, he abandons his true craft for superficial fame, which ultimately destroys his soul, sanity, and artistic talent.
Glen Moyr Castleby The Rev. A. D. Crake
Uncle Thomas relates his experience at Glen Moyr Castle, where he’d been commissioned for some portrait painting and restoration. While staying at the castle, he and his dog experience some frightening visual and auditory “hallucinations.”
A Problem in Portraitureby Arlo Bates
Can a man's portrait influence the person he becomes? The story considers identity and self-perception—the masks we wear until they become our faces.
Portraitsby Ruth Dana Draper
A popular painter creates the portrait of a beautiful young woman. On the eve before its exhibition, a villainous face appears beside hers. How will this mystery be resolved?
At the End of the Passageby Rudyard Kipling
Hummil suffers from terrifying nightmares about an ominous “black thing”. Seeking a desperate cure, Spurstow develops a specialized camera designed to photograph the retina. He captures the horrific, fatal nightmare that has been haunting Hummil's sleep—an image that sends Spurstow into a state of shock.
The Ebony Frameby Edith Nesbit
A tragic Gothic romance about a journalist who falls in love with a centuries-old woman released from a painting. Seduced by her beauty, he is ultimately forced to choose between a mortal life and a dark, immortal union that demands his soul.
The Portrait of Concitta P___by Emily Gerard
While visiting the ancestral estate, young Günther becomes infatuated with the portrait of a beautiful Italian girl hanging in the dilapidated old tower.
The Strange Case of Muriel Greyby “Ross George Dering”
A young woman under hypnosis sketches a unrecognised portrait, and then, still in a trance, violently destroys it. The mysterious picture holds a secret…
The Phantom Modelby Hume Nisbet
Painter Algar Gray seeks a new model for his masterwork, and finds his ideal amongst the lower class of society in a woman whose lifestyle is leading her on a downward spiral to death. Death itself, however, cannot interrupt the completion of the painting, or Algar’s obsession.
The Picture on the Wallby Katharine Tynan
A haunting, psychological Victorian short story. It follows a young woman who harbors a dark family secret, her mysterious father, and her persistent suitor who is put up in a sinister room where disturbing things happen.
Canon Alberic’s Scrapbookby M. R. James
An English antiquary travels to France and visits an ancient church. He purchases a rare, 17th-century scrapbook from the terrified sacristan. He soon realizes the book is haunted by a demonic entity attached to a picture mounted in its pages, “King Solomon’s Dispute with a Demon of the Night.”
Huguenin’s Wifeby M.P. Shiel
The narrator is desperately summoned by his friend Huguenin to his home on a secluded Greek isle. Huguenin’s wife has died, but she may not have been human to begin with. Key to the mystery are two self-portraits painted by the wife herself — one is monstrous.
The Old Portraitby Hume Nisbet
After scrubbing an ugly image from a canvas, he discovers beneath the masterly portrait of a beautiful woman, and spends Christmas Eve admiring his find. And then — it begins to metamorphose.
The Ghost’s Touchby Fergus Hume
Dr. Lascelles, invited to spend a fateful Christmas at Ringshaw Grange, encounters the local legend surrounding the Grange's ghost, Lady Joan. What initially seems like a spooky holiday quickly escalates into a darker, more earthly crime story that requires unraveling secrets among the inhabitants.
The Photographsby Richard Marsh
A peculiar mystery occurs at a jail, where officials repeatedly discover the ghostly, unexplainable image of a mysterious woman whenever they attempt to photograph a certain prisoner.
The Moving Fingerby Edith Wharton
The story revolves around control and the futility of trying to alter fate. After the death of his beloved wife, the widower asks a painter friend to alter her portrait so she ages alongside him, ultimately spiraling into a controlling fantasy.
The Mezzotintby M. R. James
A museum curator acquires a seemingly ordinary antique print of a manor house. The picture magically and terrifyingly changes each time it is viewed, eventually revealing a supernatural act of revenge involving the ghost of a hanged poacher.
August Heatby W. F. Harvey
An artist draws a picture of an imaginary man on trial for murder, only to meet the living counterpart later that day: a stonemason who has simultaneously carved the artist's name and date of death onto a tombstone
The Man with the Rollerby E. G. Swain
An enthusiastic young photographer takes a picture of the Stoneground Rectory, particularly pleased with the appearance of the smooth stratch of lawn in the foreground. A later examination finds the photo with an inexplicable alteration…
The Queer Pictureby Bernard Capes
This painting takes on strange characteristics at twilight …
The Living Portraitby Tod Robbins
The dread desire he had never acknowledged looked out at him from that tormenting canvas—taunting him with the bloody deed it meant to do … and the face of the killer was his own!
The Picture in the Houseby H. P. Lovecraft
A traveler seeks shelter from a storm in an isolated, decaying farmhouse. He meets a sinister, disturbed old man whose dark curiosity and obsession with an antique book of macabre engravings reveal a horrific and chilling secret.
A Square Of Canvasby Anthony M. Rud
This is the story of an insane artist, a killer who gets his artistic drive through the suffering of living creatures, and needs more dramatic creatures as time passes.
Pickman’s Modelby H. P. Lovecraft
Probably the classic short story of artistic horror.<br />
Thurber visits the very private studio of weird painter Richard Upton Pickman. Pickman’s specialty involves speculative works about the ancient and forgotten underground of Boston, and the creatures that exist there. As Thurber’s visit continues, he becomes convinced that Pickman’s oeuvre is a reflection of the man’s own madness.
The Pictureby Francis Flagg
Crazy Jim was a hobo, shunned by his associates of the road as a bit cracked, but he attained power unthinkable and dominated the destinies of nations.
Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Ropeby Henry S. Whitehead
While cleaning house, Canevin finds an old painting of a group hanging of pirates. One of the figures seems to be in torment, and the painting bleeds when stuck with a thumbtack. A series of terrifying, inexplicable events occur.
Naked Ladyby Mindret Lord
A vicious millionaire art collector plans revenge on his runaway, golddigger wife. A most realistic portrait is painted and used as a voodoo doll.
Out of the Pictureby Arthur Machen
A kabbalist artist becomes consumed by his work, incorporating mystical and occult symbolism into his paintings. He paints an eerie figure into his artwork that slowly steps out into the real world and takes over his life.
A Mysterious Portraitby “Mark Rutherford”
Intriguing short story about a man’s obsession with a hauntingly realistic portrait of an unknown woman, exploring themes of unfulfilled love, and the fragile boundary between reality and imagination.
The Portrait and the Ghostby Anonymous
The tale explores the uncanny boundaries of art, memory, and the afterlife. An artist is approached in his home by a very beautiful woman, who insists that he paint her portrait — but she can only be available until dusk. He paints until dark, and then paints on until she vanishes in the shadows — and is then afraid to view the canvas.
A Phantom Portraitby M. A. Kenyon
An artist spins a story about staying at a remote seaport town, and, one moonlit night, watching an apparition paint a portrait of a beautiful young woman — and then both vanished, leaving the portrait behind. Some surprises await him.
The Empty Picture Frameby Louisa Baldwin
Miss Swinford invites her niece for a stay in the family mansion, as they have never met. The niece shows up unexpectedly and that same evening an old family portrait disappears.
The Screen-Maidenby Lafcadio Hearn
A young Japanese man falls in love with the painting of a beautiful girl upon a screen. A wise old scholar advises him how to win her.
The Picture that Came to Lifeby Fred Thompson
The famous portrait of Camille disappeared from its frame. Its owner thought that it had been stolen. but a far weirder thing had happened.
The Picture Bedroomby “Dalton”
The best bedroom at Heatherstone Hall has a sinister reputation: every family member who sleeps there dies a mysterious death. But the new heir doesn’t believe such nonsense
The Inconstant Daguerreotypeby “N. E. Hale”
A fantastical tale that explores the tension between idealized images and reality. Two daguerreotype portraits hanging across from each other fall in love. The female portrait is charmed by the male portrait and looks forward to meeting its subject, expecting to fall in love with him at second sight. Upon meeting him in real life, she discovers that she loves his image more than the real man.
A Queer Ciceroneby Bernard Capes
The wicked Lord steps out of his portrait to lead the guided tours around the Somerset family castle, exposing their biographies as told in the guide book to be entirely fraudulent, and each supposedly saintly member to be at least as unscrupulous as he.
The Haunted Photographby Ruth McEnery Stuart
A photograph of an eerie hotel seems to come to life when observed. The narrative follows the experiences of a dying widow who feels slighted by unfaithful ghosts from years past.
The Dead Woman’s Photographby Elia W. Peattie
A woman who refused to be photographed in life has the last say after death.
Yesterday, 09:41 AM
Similar Threads