Well, this story has been dugg over 2100 times and has gained over 1100 comments, yet nobody seems to have a very sensibly theory. The diggers did find out some very interesting points though, which the original poster failed to mention. According to museum.ru the painting is titled “Maslenitsa festival” and has been painted by someone named A. Kuplin. The painting is a loose replica of Soviet artist Antonov’s postcard from 1970′s. The museum.ru site also features another painting by A. Kuplin, titled Ninth Wave, which is a replica of Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting by the same name from 1850. The museum.ru site mentions that the Ninth Wave was transferred in 1990 from Moscow mental hospital, confirming that the author A. Kuplin was indeed a mental patient.

What’s really interesting about this phenomenon is that the painting is not a masterpiece. It’s pretty dull and uninteresting, yet it has received a lot of attention – all because of one person who claims that there is a big mystery behind it. This could be hoax, and if it is, it’s a good one.

Out of all the theories presented so far I digg the snowman theory the most. The Maslenitsa festival is a Russian festival celebrating the end of winter. Yet there are no signs of spring in the painting – the scene looks like it takes place in midwinter (although there is a lot of room for interpretation). The biggest clue supporting the snowman theory is in fact the other painting – The Ninth Wave by A. Kuplin. Check out the person in the water, that’s clearly a snowman melting in the warm sunset! So A. Kuplin had severe schizophrenia and was under the delusion that he was a snowman. This explains why the children sitting in the sleigh are all looking at him, while all the adults in the painting are busy doing something else.

It’s incredible how many different phobias people see in the painting, fear of dark, fear of open spaces, fear of being alone etc. It’s almost like everyone finds their own phobias present in the painting. Could it be that the painting is actually just a demonstration of suggestion – if we are told the painter is mentally ill, then we will find all kinds of symptoms in the painting? Or is it a social experiment, something designed to test the problem solving skills of an Internet community or a class of students? Maybe it’s an elaborate hoax, a bad joke, a conspiracy? Whatever it is, it’s making us all insane!