I FIRST CAME ACROSS THIS WONDERFULLY CREEPY PICTURE while writing a book on vampires and related topics (as with Harry Clarke elsewhere in the Gallery). For years I had no idea who had painted it. Then I became acquainted with the strange and wonderful world of Antoine Wiertz. You can find plenty about him elsewhere on the internet - not least at the website of his gallery right beside the European Parliament in Brussels. The gallery itself is also well worth a visit if you happen to be nearby. Some of his paintings are seriously enormous and others are seriously strange.