Behind the Curse of Juan Luna's "Portrait of a Lady"

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Behind the Curse of Juan Luna's "Portrait of a Lady"

Rose Alipio doesn’t say much about the painting. In her many years as gallery guide in the National Museum, she’s adhered to her conservative annotation of the artwork when speaking to museum visitors—that it is Juan Luna’s portrait of his wife Paz Pardo de Tavera, adding what might already be rather obvious: that it is a picture of Paz before bedtime, seeing as the woman is in bed, clutching a rosary, and there’s a prayer book and a night stand to her left. “Do you know that Juan Luna killed his wife?” Rose might ask if she is feeling a little generous, or if her audience seems a more involved group and not a bunch of students who want nothing more than to whiz through the tour and get out of the museum halls. Otherwise, Rose seems more than happy to offer only basic information, careful never to venture onto the tricky subject that has haunted the painting for many decades now: the curse it is said to possess.

During opening night at the Met Museum, the spotlight for Portrait of a Lady exploded. All the other lights were fine.