History Literature / PickmansModel

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: One of the paintings shows a group of ghouls laughing their asses off as one of their number reads from a book. The title of the painting is "Holmes, Lowell, and Longfellow Lie Buried in Mount Auburn" - they're laughing because they know they've devoured those corpses, but humans don't.

* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: The ghouls steal human children and leave ghoulish youngsters in their place. The ghoul whelps appear human enough to fool their host parents into accepting them, and the kidnapped human children are raised as -- and eventually transform into -- ghouls. There are hints - eventually confirmed in Lovecraft's later work ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'' - that [[spoiler: Pickman himself is the product of such a swap]].

%%* TunnelNetwork:

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* SleepParalysisCreature: Thurber mentions that some of Pickman's paintings show the ghouls "squatting on the chests of sleepers." An earlier comparison between Pickman and the real-life painter Henry Fuseli suggests Lovecraft probably had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare "The Nightmare"]] - one of the most iconic depictions of a SleepParalysisCreature - on his mind while writing this story.

"Pickman's Model" is a ShortStory by Creator/HPLovecraft, first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It introduces the [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghoul]] to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos; Lovecraft's Dreamlands story ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'' follows up on some of the questions and characters that appear in this story.

Lovecraft was fond of the TwistEnding for some of his shorter works, and the one for this story is generally thought to be one of his most potent, right up there with "Literature/TheOutsider1926" because of the sheer punch [[TheEndingChangesEverything of the very last line]].

For "Pickman's Model", Lovecraft took inspiration from "Literature/{{Amina}}", which was reprinted earlier in 1927. The setting of Boston may have come about in response to the last line in "Amina" reassuringly asserting that ghouls don't dwell outside of Persia. Influence from ''Literature/{{Vathek}}'' can also be detected in that Lovecraft's ghouls live underground as they do in the novel. Following "Pickman's Model", this entered popular culture as a recurring ghoul trait.

''Pickman's Model'' was adapted into a segment of the anthology series ''Series/NightGallery'', and then again by Creator/AlanMoore (with a few names changed) in Issue 7 of ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. The horror anthology series ''Series/GuillermoDelTorosCabinetOfCuriosities'' features another adaptation of this story.

* TheReveal: Thurber absentmindedly pockets a reference photograph from Pickman's studio, and only looks at the photo later.
-->Well -- that paper wasn't a photograph of any background, after all. What it shewed was simply the monstrous being he was painting on that awful canvas. It was the model he was using—and its background was merely the wall of the cellar studio in minute detail. [[spoiler:[[WhamLine But by God, Eliot]] ''it was a photograph from life.]]''

* SleepParalysisCreature: Thurber mentions that some of Pickman's paintings show the ghouls "squatting on the chests of sleepers", invoking this trope. An earlier comparison between Pickman and the real-life painter Henry Fuseli suggests Lovecraft probably had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare "The Nightmare"]] - one of the most iconic depictions of a SleepParalysisCreature - on his mind while writing this story.

Boston painter Richard Upton Pickman has disappeared recently, and his former friend Thurber has a dark story to tell about him. Thurber regales AudienceSurrogate Eliot about Pickman's strange artwork -- portraits of monsters called ghouls, so lifelike and terrifying that no respectable gallery or museum would show them. Other artists cut ties with Pickman altogether. Only Thurber remained willing to associate with him, and the frightening artist soon offers to give Thurber a private showing of his work.

When Thurber ventures into Pickman's studio, he sees paintings more horrifying than anything Pickman had dared publicly show. When he and Pickman hear ''something'' crawling about on the other side of the door, Pickman shoots at it, blaming an infestation of rats.

With "Amina" preceding it, "Pickman's Model" is at the center of a network of related ghoul stories. Based on Pickman's painting "Subway Accident", Robert Barbour Johnson wrote "Far Below". Creator/RobertBloch, Lovecraft's protégé at the time, wrote "The Grinning Ghoul", a retreading of "Pickman's Model". And both Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith and Creator/HenrySWhitehead followed Lovecraft's example by also letting "Amina" inspire them to a story, respectively "Literature/TheNamelessOffspring" and "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode".

* GenderedInsult: Both Thurber and Pickman refer to art critics who don't like Pickman's work with insulting female descriptions, the first with "fussy old women" and the latter with "those cursed old maids".

* BeneathTheEarth: The story features a horde of subterranean ghouls dwelling beneath Boston.
* ChangelingTale:
** One of Pickman's paintings implies that ghouls snatch human babies and replace them with young ghouls, who take on human features and dwell amidst unwitting families.
--->"(A human family was) sitting about while the father read from the Scriptures. Every face but one shewed nobility and reverence, but that one reflected the mockery of the pit. It was that of a young man in years, and no doubt belonged to a supposed son of that pious father, but in essence it was the kin of the unclean things. It was their changeling—and in a spirit of supreme irony Pickman had given the features a very perceptible resemblance to his own."
** Another painting shows that kidnapped human children grow to become ghouls in behavior and physiognomy.
--->"There was one thing called "The Lesson" -- heaven pity me, that I ever saw it! Listen -- can you fancy a squatting circle of nameless dog-like things in a churchyard teaching a small child how to feed like themselves? [...] Pickman was shewing what happens to those stolen babes—how they grow up -- and then I began to see a hideous relationship in the faces of the human and non-human figures. He was, in all his gradations of morbidity between the frankly non-human and the degradedly human, establishing a sardonic linkage and evolution. The dog-things were developed from mortals!"
* ChekhovsGun: The piece of paper that Thurber pockets in Pickman's studio. [[spoiler:It sets up the shocker WhamLine at the very, very end.]]
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: One of the paintings shows a group of ghouls laughing their asses off as one of their number reads from a book. The title of the painting is “Holmes, Lowell, and Longfellow Lie Buried in Mount Auburn" - they're laughing because they know they've devoured those corpses, but humans don't.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Thurber repeatedly demands alcohol to steel his nerves as he recounts the story of his acquaintance with Pickman.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: If you read ''Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath'' before "Pickman's Model," you're probably going to wonder what Pickman is doing in Boston [[spoiler:and still human]].
* MadArtist: Richard Upton Pickman is a descendant of a woman hanged as a witch in Salem, and he comments that his "four-times-great-grandmother could have told you things" of magic. Pickman locates his studio in the slums of the North End in order to draw on the "night-spirit of antique horror" left by pirates, smugglers, and witches. He produces paintings of monsters so lifelike and frightening that artists and galleries universally reject his work, and his acquaintances even complain that his face is changing in ways that aren't quite human. It is ultimately revealed that Pickman’s strange behavior and realistic art stem from his use [[spoiler:of [[RealAfterAll real, actual ghouls]] as models for his paintings]]. How does he do this, you ask? As one of the passages quoted above implies, [[spoiler:he is partly a ghoul himself]].
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Ghoulsa are canine humanoids who dwell underground and eat corpses stolen from graves. They snatch human infants and replace them with young ghouls in a classic [[ChangelingTale changeling swap]], and it is hinted that the kidnapped babies grow into ghouls themselves. While dangerous, the ghouls are also sentient to the point of being literate and possessing a morbid sense of humor. Later, ''Dream Quest'' develops this still further, even presenting ghouls in a strangely sympathetic light.

* RealAfterAll: The piece of paper that Thurber took is, in fact, [[spoiler: a photograph of an actual ghoul in Pickman's studio, which proves that the artist is painting the monsters from life]].

* SpookyPainting: Everything Pickman paints. His personal gallery includes portraits of ghouls nibbling on human corpses, attacking in the subway tunnels, and dancing around a hanged witch. Pickman’s work is so disturbing that it cannot be shown publicly, and mainstream Boston artists cease associating with him. Even Thurber screams at the sight of some of the more gruesome paintings. The spookiness level [[SerialEscalation reaches true Lovecraftian levels]] when Thurber realizes the piece of paper he pocketed without thinking [[spoiler: is a live photograph of a ghoul -- everything Pickman paints ''is based on reality.'']]
* WasOnceAMan: As described under ChangelingTale, the ghouls themselves. It's [[spoiler: [[AmbiguouslyHuman implied that Pickman himself is such a changeling]]]], in the process of becoming a ghoul. [[spoiler: This is confirmed in the later Lovecraft story ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'', where Richard Pickman appears as a full ghoul, having disappeared from Boston and shed his humanity.]]

"Pickman's Model" is a short horror story by Creator/HPLovecraft, first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It introduces the [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghoul]] to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos; Lovecraft's Dreamlands story ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'' follows up on some of the questions and characters that appear in this story.

!! Tropes:

* GenderFlip: In the ''Series/NightGallery'' adaptation, Thurber is replaced with a female character named Mavis Goldsmith, who has a doomed [[TokenRomance crush]] on [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Pickman]]. Once she realizes what kind of a guy he really is, though, she ends up just as HorrorStruck as Thurber was, so the tone is still suitably Lovecraftian.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: "Pickman's Model", along with ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'', popularized Lovecraft’s vision of ghouls as a secretive living species instead of undead or demons. "Pickman's Model" portrays ghouls as horrific vaguely-canine humanoids who dwell underground and eat corpses stolen from graves. They snatch human infants and replace them with young ghouls in a classic [[ChangelingTale changeling swap]], and it is hinted that the kidnapped babies grow into ghouls themselves. While dangerous, the ghouls are also sentient to the point of being literate and possessing a morbid sense of humor, which is something Alan Moore ran with in ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. Later, ''Dream Quest'' develops this still further, even presenting ghouls in a strangely sympathetic light.

* RealAfterAll: The piece of paper that Thurber took is, in fact, [[spoiler: a photograph of an actual ghoul in Pickman’s studio, which proves that the artist is painting the monsters from life]].

A painting mentioned in "Pickman's Model", namely "Subway Accident", was picked up by Robert Barbour Johnson as the basis of his short story "Far Below".

For "Pickman's Model", Lovecraft was heavily inspired by the "Literature/{{Amina}}", which was included in Creator/EdwardLucasWhite's compilation ''Lukundoo and Other Stories'' that saw release earlier in 1927. He may even have felt challenged by the last line in "Amina" asserting that ghouls do not roam around in UsefulNotes/RhodeIsland. In turn, a painting mentioned in "Pickman's Model", namely "Subway Accident", was picked up by Robert Barbour Johnson as the basis of his short story "Far Below".

''Pickman's Model'' is a short horror story by Creator/HPLovecraft, first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It introduces the ghoul creatures to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos; Lovecraft's Dreamlands story ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'' follows up on some of the questions and characters that appear in this story.

''Pickman's Model'' was adapted into a segment of the anthology series ''Series/NightGallery'', and then again by Creator/AlanMoore (with a few names changed) in Issue 7 of ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. Creator/GuillermoDelToro's horror anthology series ''[[Series/GuillermoDelTorosCabinetOfCuriosities Cabinet of Curiosities]]'' features another adaptation of this story, with Creator/CrispinGlover as Pickman and Creator/BenBarnes as Thurber.

''Pickman's Model'' was adapted into a segment of the anthology series ''Series/NightGallery'', and then again by Creator/AlanMoore (with a few names changed) in Issue 7 of ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. Creator/GuillermoDelToro's upcoming horror anthology series ''[[Series/GuillermoDelTorosCabinetOfCuriosities Cabinet of Curiosities]]'' will feature another adaptation of this story, with Creator/CrispinGlover as Pickman and Creator/BenBarnes as Thurber.

''Pickman's Model'' was adapted into a segment of the anthology series ''Series/NightGallery'', and then again by Creator/AlanMoore (with a few names changed) in Issue 7 of ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. Creator/GuillermoDelToro's upcoming horror anthology series ''Cabinet of Curiosities'' will feature another adaptation of this story, with Creator/CrispinGlover as Pickman and Creator/BenBarnes as Thurber.

When Thurber ventures into Pickman's studio, he sees paintings more horrifying than anything Pickman had dared publickly show. When he and Pickman hear ''something'' crawling about on the other side of the door, Pickman shoots at it, blaming an infestation of rats.

''Pickman's Model'' was adapted into a segment of the anthology series ''Series/NightGallery'', and then again by Creator/AlanMoore (with a few names changed) in Issue 7 of ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''.

* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: The ghouls steal human children and leave ghoulish youngsters in their place. The ghoul whelps appear human enough to fool their host parents into accepting them, and the kidnapped human children are raised as -- and eventually transform into -- ghouls.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: "Pickman's Model", along with ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'', popularized Lovecraft’s vision of ghouls as a secretive living species instead of undead or demons. "Pickman's Model" portrays ghouls as horrific canine humanoids who dwell underground and eat corpses stolen from graves. They snatch human infants and replace them with young ghouls in a classic [[ChangelingTale changeling swap]], and it is hinted that the kidnapped babies grow into ghouls themselves. While dangerous, the ghouls are also sentient to the point of being literate and possessing a morbid sense of humor, which is something Alan Moore ran with in ''{{ComicBook/Providence}}''. Later, ''Dream Quest'' develops this still further, even presenting ghouls in a strangely sympathetic light.

Thurber had, just before this, plucked a piece of paper off an easel and pocketed it. When he looks at it later, he realizes to his horror...[[spoiler: that it is, in fact, a photo that reveals Pickman isn't painting creatures from his imagination, ''but reality.'']]