Hands Resist Him

Do your bidding!

The Hands Resist him - (Listed as one of the most Haunted Paintings) The inspiration for “The Hands Resist Him” came from an old photograph and a poem. The photograph was one of Stoneham at the age of five when he and his adoptive family stayed at his grandmother’s tiny Chicago apartment. Stoneham used the photo as a reference for the boy in the painting. In addition, a poem, written in 1971 by Stoneham’s first wife, Rhoann Ponseti, served as inspiration for the painting’s title.

In Stoneham’s own words: “the hands are ‘the other lives.’ The glass door, that thin veil between waking and dreaming. The girl/doll is the imagined companion, or guide through this realm.”

In the year 2000, this painting was listed on eBay. Depicting a grim-looking child beside a large doll, it immediately got attention online. The listing actually came with a long disclaimer, warning anybody faint of heart not to buy it. Within the disclaimer, it literally said “This painting may or may not possess supernatural powers…”. That’s never a good thing to hear let’s be honest.

The seller genuinely believed the painting to be haunted. They claimed to have seen the boy and doll move within the painting and even that the boy could step out of it into reality. A major selling point in the eBay auction was the seller’s description of events. As the story goes, the sellers kept the painting in their 4½-year-old daughter’s bedroom. One morning, the girl claimed that the subjects of the painting “did not let her sleep at night.” Her parents set up a motion sensor camera and captured some truly terrifying supernatural activity. The photographs showed the boy crawling from the painting “as if he’d been threatened by the doll.” In others, the doll’s face appears to be angry, and she is holding a gun in her hand “instead of the dry cell which was painted in the original.

The work itself has an interesting history. Though unclear how it was discovered on the grounds of an abandoned brewery as if intentionally discarded.The elderly couple who discovered the painting took it home with them but soon grew desperate to get rid of it. In time thirty thousand people would visit the listing, many of which claimed to see the painting move. they would feel uneasy, unwell, or have odd occurrences happen in their own home.

Most often it was reported the strange hands behind the boy were moving, clawing at the window. Some say those hands also belong to dolls – like the one standing beside him – who too has been reported to move. Perhaps the dolls want to kill the boy, hence why he is known to shift away from them.

Eventually, the painting was sold to "Anonymous" for just over a thousand dollars, five times the initial asking price. Its location now is a mystery.

my two bits?..... Support your local artists