The Painting That Seemed to Let Its Children Out at Night

The little girl insisted that something was wrong with the painting hanging in her family’s home. She said the two children in the picture were fighting at night. Sometimes, she told her parents, they even climbed out of the painting and wandered around the room.

Her father decided to find out what was going on. He set up a motion-activated camera facing the painting and left it watching for three nights. When the family looked at the pictures, they became convinced their daughter had been telling the truth. Now they wanted the painting out of their house.

A Boy, a Doll, and a Door Full of Hands

The painting was called The Hands Resist Him, and it was creepy enough without anything moving.

A young boy wearing a blue-green shirt and shorts stands beside a doll that looks like a little girl. The doll has empty-looking eyes and an expression that’s hard to read. Behind them is a glass door, with dozens of small hands pressed against it from the darkness on the other side.

The boy looks unusually serious for his age. The doll seems almost human, except something about her face isn’t quite right. And all those hands behind the glass make it look as though something is trying to get inside.

Artist Bill Stoneham painted the picture in 1972, using an old childhood picture of himself and a friend standing outside a Chicago apartment building. Stoneham has explained that the door represents the space between waking life and dreams. The doll is an imaginary companion who can guide the boy through that strange world, while the hands represent other lives and possibilities.

The painting had a personal meaning for Stoneham. He had no idea that, nearly thirty years later, someone would claim the children were actually coming to life.

Someone Found It Behind an Old Brewery

The painting appeared in a Beverly Hills art exhibition in 1974. According to accounts of its early history, actor John Marley, famous for his role in The Godfather, bought it.

After that, the painting disappeared from public attention. Stoneham continued his career, eventually working in movies and computer games, and lost track of where his artwork had ended up.

Years later, someone reportedly found the painting abandoned behind an old brewery in California. It eventually reached a family who collected and resold unwanted items.

They thought they had found something special. The painting was large, unusual, and apparently in good condition. They couldn’t understand why anyone would have thrown it away.

For a while, it seemed like a lucky find. But their young daughter soon started telling them things that made them uncomfortable.

Three Nights in Front of a Camera

According to the family, their four-and-a-half-year-old daughter began insisting that the boy and the doll were fighting after everyone went to bed. She said the figures sometimes left the painting altogether. Her parents didn’t know what to make of it, but the stories continued, and eventually her father decided to investigate.

He pointed a motion-activated camera at the painting and left it running over three nights. If something moved in front of the camera, it would take a picture. When the family checked the results, they believed the camera had caught something extraordinary.

In the pictures they later shared, the doll appeared to threaten the boy, while the boy seemed to be trying to get away. Some viewers thought the doll was holding a small gun, although Stoneham later explained that the object in her hands was a battery with wires.

The family believed the pictures showed the figures behaving exactly as their daughter had described. They had brought the painting home because they liked it. Now they were frightened enough to put it up for sale.

An eBay Listing With a Warning

On February 2, 2000, the painting appeared on eBay with an opening bid of $199. The listing included the family’s story, pictures from the camera, and a warning for anyone thinking about buying it. The sellers cautioned people with certain medical conditions or a fear of supernatural experiences against bidding.

They also included a disclaimer saying they weren’t responsible for anything unusual that might happen after the painting changed hands. One of the strangest details was the family’s request for advice about getting their house blessed after the artwork was gone.

The listing was an odd mixture of humor and genuine concern. The sellers said they weren’t claiming that ghosts or supernatural powers were involved, but they still wanted to make sure the painting wasn’t coming back.

People began forwarding the auction to their friends. Paranormal websites picked up the story, and visitors arrived in large numbers to see the strange pictures for themselves.

By the time the auction ended, the painting had received 30 bids and sold for $1,025. The buyer was Kim Smith, owner of Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

People Started Reporting Strange Experiences

The story didn’t end when the painting was sold. In fact, some of the strangest reports came from people who had never been anywhere near it.

Some claimed they became dizzy or felt sick after looking at a picture of the painting on their computer screens. Others reported nightmares, frightening sensations, or the uncomfortable feeling that something was watching them.

A few people advised others not to leave the image displayed on their computers or show it to young children. Smith soon found himself receiving messages from people describing their experiences. Some offered prayers or suggested having the artwork blessed. Others wanted to know whether anything strange had happened since he bought it.

Smith wasn’t reporting the same kind of activity the original family had described. But his new purchase had certainly attracted an enormous amount of attention. And there was someone else who was about to discover what had happened to the painting: the man who created it.

The Artist Had No Idea What Had Happened

Around the time of the auction, Bill Stoneham received an email asking whether he knew a painting called The Hands Resist Him. He hadn’t heard that title in about 25 years, but he recognized it immediately. When he learned about the auction and the family’s experiences, he was surprised to discover that his old artwork had become famous for being haunted.

Stoneham had painted the scene using his childhood memories, imagination, and ideas about dreams. He had never expected people to believe the figures inside it might actually move.

Still, he was interested in what people were saying. Stoneham has talked about the strange feelings certain places can give us and how art can capture experiences that are difficult to explain.

He and Smith stayed in contact over the years. According to Stoneham’s website, Smith still owns the original painting.

The Boy and Doll Came Back

In 2004, Stoneham was commissioned to revisit the characters from his famous painting. By then, he had spent years working mainly with digital art, so the project brought him back to painting by hand.

He called the new work Resistance at the Threshold. It showed the characters years after the original scene, as though their lives had continued while the painting was out of Stoneham’s hands. He returned to their story again in later paintings, including The Threshold of Revelation in 2012 and What Remains in 2021.

But the 2004 painting included an interesting change. In the original, the hands had been trapped behind the glass, reaching toward the boy and his strange companion.

In the new painting, those hands were finally starting to come through.