Spiritualist mediums claimed that in their presence works of art appeared on previously blank canvas or paper without the intervention of human hands.
by Massimo Introvigne
Art historians have exhibited a renewed interest in “spirit paintings,” i.e., works of art allegedly produced by spirits of the deceased or other mysterious entities. It is also acknowledged that spirit paintings have exerted a certain influence on modern art. However, there is some confusion on what spirit painting exactly is.
We can distinguish at least three different cases: (1) “Precipitated” paintings; (2) Mediums portraying the spirits during séances; and (3) Painting with hands allegedly guided by the spirits.
In this article, I focus my attention on the most spectacular case. This is the “precipitation” of works of art that appeared on canvas (or on paper, or on a slate), ostensibly without the use of human hands, during a Spiritualist séance or even outside séances in the presence of mediums and psychics. In this case, the 19th-century mediums and some 20th century psychics (cases are rarer today) claimed that the spirits produced the paintings directly, rather than by guiding the hands of a human artist.
The first famous medium who was able to “precipitate” spirit paintings was Scottish cabinet-maker David Duguid (1832–1907). Duguid often painted with his hands reportedly guided by the spirits of deceased painters, including the 17th-century Flemish masters Jan Steen and Jacob van Ruisdael. However, his guides also produced “direct” (precipitated) works during his séances, including some that illustrated his 1876 spirit novel “Hafed, Prince of Persia” (1876). According to Duguid, the book was in fact a true historical account.
One problem with Duguid was that his spirits were apparently not familiar with copyright laws. Several “direct” illustrations in the first edition of Hafed were suspiciously similar to the popular “Cassell’s Family Bible” and had to be expunged from the second edition when the publisher of the Bible complained.
For the believers, however, similarities with the “Cassell’s Family Bible,” in both the “precipitated” and the “guided” spirit paintings of “Hafed,” were not conclusive evidence of fraud. If one believed that the spirit were at work, they could well have worked with material they found in the mind of the medium, including reminiscences of the “Cassell’s Family Bible.”
Among the first mediums who specialized in precipitated paintings were Lily Dale’s Campbell brothers. Allen Campbell (1833–1919) and Charles Shourds (1863–1926) were not brothers, but lived (raising suspicions of a homoerotic relationship, hardly tolerated at that time) and held séances together.
Their most famous portraits, such as Lincoln’s, were done in public, with the Campbell brothers’ hands never touching the canvas.
Their most beautiful production depicts a spirit guide called Azur. It hangs in the lobby of the Maplewood Hotel at Lily Dale’s Spiritualist community in New York state. I have seen it several times there, each time with feelings of awe. The Lily Dale Museum also preserves other precipitated paintings.
Concerning the portrait of Azur, six witnesses testified that: “During the entire séance [of June 15, 1898] there was light enough for us to see everything perfectly and note the gradual growth of the painting on the canvas. Mr. A. Campbell was entranced and Azur, using his organism, gave us some very beautiful words […] After some music, additional lights were brought, the curtain withdrawn, and lo! The picture was complete. […] While we were admiring it, there came at the back of the head a six-pointed star, which is now distinctly seen.” Professional skeptics have given several explanations of how fraud was possible. None of them is supported by conclusive evidence, though, and I am happy to just admire the work and let the skeptics be skeptical.
Not less famous for precipitated spirit paintings were the Bang Sisters, Elizabeth (1859–1920), and May (Mary) Elvira (or Eunice) (1862–1917), who kept cottages both at Lily Dale and at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana.
The Bang Sisters precipitated (and sometimes painted guided by the spirits) portraits of deceased persons. They were repeatedly denounced as frauds, and reportedly caught red-handed more than once, but were also vigorously defended by a significant portion of the American Spiritualist community.
Unfortunately, precipitated spirit paintings became connected with the notorious “Swami Laura Horos,” a.k.a. Ann O’ Delia Diss Debar (1849–1911?). Horos ended up in jail in 1901, sentenced to seven-year imprisonment both for fraud and for immoral sexual practices in her temple in London. Contemporary media labeled Debar as “the world’s worst woman,” which made precipitated spirit paintings especially suspect.
And yet witnesses attested that in the presence of somebody very different and much more respected than Debar, famous Italian psychic Gustavo Adolfo Rol (1903–1994), a man who never accepted money for his “phenomena” and was famous for his charitable activities, precipitated paintings also appeared. “Brushed moved by themselves” to paint, or previously white sheets of paper (sometimes controlled for possible tricks, finding none) suddenly displayed works signed by Goya. Braque, or Kandinsky—although Rol was not sure of what part of their “intelligent spirit” had produced the artworks.
At the time of the Campbells, or before, none other than Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), in the early phase of her career, was also busy precipitating spirit paintings. In his definitive 2001 study, John Patrick Deveney claimed that her productions were “in the dozens.”
They included a portrait made in 1875 of the mysterious John King—who, Blavatsky later claimed, was one and the same with Theosophy’s Master Hilarion—and another, of 1877, of one “Tiruvalla Yogi.” Although most of these works were “precipitated,” they may imply that the first of a long list of Theosophical painters was none other than Madame Blavatsky herself.
