Introduce the painting The Last Alice.

Mr. Brown is an art dealer and runs a gallery in London. He has high artistic taste, but he is ruthless and greedy for money.

One day, Brown was sitting idly in the gallery when an old man with gray hair came in, with a paper bag under his arm, looking like a poor artist. The old man opened the paper bag and revealed an oil painting embedded in an ebony frame. The old man asked cautiously, "boss, I want to sell this painting to you." How much do you think it is worth? "

Mr. Brown went to the counter, picked up the picture and studied it carefully. His eyes lit up when he looked at it. Although not written by a famous artist, the color composition is excellent, and the woman in the painting looks lifelike. It must be worth a lot of money to sell such a painting. Brown thought, but his face was expressionless. He frowned and said, "Well, to tell you the truth, this painting looks ordinary, and it is worth 50 pounds at most in the market. I am willing to pay 45 pounds for it, and I hope God will bless it to find a good buyer in the future. "

The old man nodded in agreement and didn't bargain with Brown. Mr. Brown handed the old man 45 pounds. The old man turned to leave. Brown stopped him: "Wait a minute, did you paint this oil painting?"

"No, this is my collection. This portrait is called "The Last Alice" and is said to have been made by an unknown French painter. " Say that finish, the old man hurried away.

Brown hung the painting in the gallery and enjoyed it happily. The woman in the picture is about twenty years old, wearing a black evening dress and holding a bunch of white roses in her hand. She is beautiful, but her expression is sad and her eyes are full of sadness. Brown looked at it and seemed to be infected by the melancholy atmosphere in the oil painting, and his heart became heavy. He thinks this unknown painter is really artistic!

In the evening, a French collector came to visit Brown. He suddenly froze when he saw the portrait on the wall. When he had dinner with Brown, he seemed preoccupied and embarrassed. Finally, the collector couldn't help asking, "Brown, where did you buy that portrait on the wall?" It is very famous in our French collection. "

Brown said proudly, "I bought it from a poor old man this afternoon." Do I have a good eye? If it is sold to someone who knows how to do it, it is worth at least 500 pounds. "

The collector lit a cigarette, took a sip slowly and said, "Brown, if I were you, I would get rid of this painting as soon as possible."

Brown looked at each other suspiciously and said coldly, "Why? Is it stolen goods? "

The collector smoked silently for a while and said, "I am not a superstitious person, and I don't want to spread supernatural rumors, but this portrait has some terrible legends."

The collector told Mr. Brown that this painting is called The Last Alice, which was created by a young French painter thirty years ago. The woman in the painting is his wife. That painter is very talented, but he has never been able to satisfy his talent, and life is very difficult. Fortunately, his wife is beautiful and gentle, and she has been entangled with him for many years, and finally ushered in a turning point. The painter's paintings were gradually appreciated by people, and he became famous and his living conditions became superior. However, when he came to the end of his pain, the painter moved on and fell in love with a young female model. He stayed in the studio all day hanging out with female models and finally asked his wife for a divorce.

The painter's wife loved him very much, said nothing, and soon signed a divorce agreement. The next day, she committed suicide by taking poison at home. Before she died, she wore a black evening dress and held a bunch of white roses in her hand, with a calm expression.

After his wife died, the painter was condemned by his conscience. He realized that the person he loved most was actually his wife, and no one could take her place. He turned grief into strength, locked himself in the studio for two months, painted crazily, and finally created a shocking oil painting, in which his wife was still as beautiful as ever. After the oil painting was finished, the painter jumped into the Seine River and committed suicide.

"This is really a sad story," said Brown with a shrug. "But what does this have to do with me?"

The collector went on to say: After the painter died, this painting fell into the hands of a wealthy businessman in Paris. He likes the beautiful woman in the painting very much and often shuts himself in his room to admire her beautiful face alone. One morning, people found him dead in his room, his eyes wide open and full of fear, as if he had seen something terrible. His collar was torn open and his neck and chest were covered with blood. His mouth is as wide as a fish without water, and his face is full of pain.

After the death of the wealthy businessman, this portrait was auctioned by an art dealer. A month later, the painter died inexplicably in the shop, with the same expression as a wealthy businessman in Paris.

A few years later, the collector's uncle bought the painting. At that time, there were already rumors about this portrait in the collection. People say this is an ominous painting, which will bring all kinds of misfortunes to collectors, but the collector's uncle is an unbeliever and doesn't believe it at all. He put this portrait with other collections. Years passed and nothing happened.

One winter, the collector was invited to visit his uncle's house, and his uncle showed him all his collections. When the collector saw the last Alice, he was attracted by it. My uncle told him the rumor about this painting and said with a smile, "They say that the undead attached to this painting will bring disaster to the owner of the painting, but you see, I have bought it for several years and everything is normal."

That night, the collector slept in his uncle's bedroom and his uncle slept in his study. The next morning, the collector knocked on the door of the study. There is no movement in it. He pushed open the door and found his uncle lying in a chair, his shirt button torn open, blood stains on his neck and chest, and blood dripping on his nails. Uncle rolled his eyes and opened his mouth wide, just like a fish suffocating out of water. Fortunately, he didn't die, and his voice said something weakly.

The collector put his ears together and didn't catch what his uncle said clearly: "I started to feel uncomfortable when I looked at that painting ..." He said with difficulty, and his head tilted and he died. The collector looked down and found that the portrait was falling to the ground. ..

Mr. Brown was shocked and asked anxiously, "What happened? Did the police find out the cause of his death? "

The collector shook his head: "Forensic identification shows that he died of cardiovascular disease, but his body has always been healthy. I can't forget his frightened eyes before he died. His hand kept pointing at the painting ... After my uncle died, the painting was sold by my family. I once told this story to a few friends in private, and soon the news spread in the collection world. This painting has another name-'portrait of death'. "

Brown only felt his hands and feet cold, and he didn't recover from the shock until the collector left. He thought about it, went to the wall, took down the oil painting, wrapped it in white paper, stuffed it into a drawer, and never dared to look at it again.

The next day, Mr. Brown was daydreaming in the gallery. A handsome young man came in from the door. His name is Alonso. He just immigrated to England from South America. Brown's daughter Jenny has a good impression of Alonso. He lives in the Brown family recently. Brown was very dissatisfied with his daughter's liking for a poor immigrant and scolded her many times, but Jenny didn't listen to him at all.

Alonso came to the counter with a big package, scratched his head and said shyly, "Mr. Brown, I want you to help me identify an oil painting."

Mr. Brown looks at the square parcel with the South American address on it. Alonso said that the painting originally belonged to a distant aunt who liked to collect art, and she died a few days ago. According to her will, Alonso was assigned an oil painting, which had just been brought from the post office and had not been opened.

So, Brown took out his paper cutter and cut the paper bag slowly, ready to take this painting for identification. At this time, Jenny drove back from the outside, and the car was loaded with big bags. She called Alonso to help move things. Just after Alonso left, Brown opened the parcel and revealed a landscape painting. He looked intently, his hands trembled with excitement, rubbed his eyes and looked carefully. Yes, this is a landscape painting by the French painter Monet. Unexpectedly, Alonso accidentally got a priceless treasure!

Brown looked at the picture greedily, and suddenly an idea came to him. He looked up and saw that Alonso and Jenny were still moving things and didn't notice the situation here. The last Alice looks about the size of Monet's painting. If the two paintings are reversed, we can not only get a famous painting handed down from ancient times, but also get rid of the burden of the portrait of death. Brown decided to open the drawer quickly, take out the last Alice from the wooden frame, put Monet's painting in the frame, and put the portrait without the frame into the package.

After a while, Alonso came back and asked curiously, "What's the matter, Mr. Brown? Is this painting valuable? "

Brown coughed and said in surprise, "I didn't expect it to be a good painting." I estimate that it can be worth 500 pounds in the market. "

"Really? Great! " Alonso happily took out the oil painting from the parcel, enjoyed it carefully, thanked Brown and returned to his room with the oil painting in his arms.

Brown was also very happy, and the trouble was solved satisfactorily. He accidentally got a valuable famous painting. He gloated that if the portrait of death could be fulfilled on Alonso, he would have one less trouble. In the evening, he crept outside Alonso's room. Through the crack of the door, he saw Alonso lying in bed. The big package was placed on the bedside, and a corner of the portrait was revealed in the package. Brown smiled strangely and quietly walked back to his bedroom.

Brown took out Monet's paintings and hung them on the wall. Then he sat on the bed and looked at the landscape paintings, filled with joy. "This painting can fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds. God, I really made a fortune. Who would have thought I was so lucky? This painting should be auctioned as soon as possible, and you can rest assured when you get the money. "

One morning after half a month, Jenny didn't see Brown go downstairs for breakfast, so she went to the room to call him. The door was open, so she pushed it in. Jenny exclaimed, "Alonso, come quickly!" "

Alonso slept in the downstairs room and ran up when he heard the shouts. He saw Brown lying flat on the bed, and the sheets were messy, as if they had rolled back and forth on the bed. Brown's robe was torn open and blood stains were scratched on his chest. His eyes stared blankly ahead, and he was still alive. His hand laboriously pointed at the wall. ..

Alonso looked up. There is only one landscape painting on the wall. He looked blankly at Brown, who was dying. His body twitched several times and finally stopped.

Jenny turned pale with fear: "What happened to Dad?"

Alonso did not answer. He walked silently to the wall and looked at the landscape painting carefully. Suddenly, he saw the dark brown frame, and his body shook violently. He held out his hand and stroked the frame gently. He turned to Jenny and said, "I know the cause of your father's death."

Alonso told Jenny that the wood of this picture frame came from a rare tree. Its trunk is dark brown and the wood is delicate, which will release toxic gases. If people inhale this toxic gas in a closed space for a long time, they will die of poisoning. This kind of tree grows in the tropical rain forest of South America, and Alonso grew up in South America, so we know its characteristics. This kind of wood was shipped to Europe, and Europeans knew nothing about its toxicity, so they made it into a picture frame.

Jenny suddenly realized, but Alonso only told the secret of the frame. As for the secret of the painting on the wall, it will always be a mystery. ..