Pickman's Model - Recap

In a loft apartment in present day Boston, Eliot Blackman and Larry Rand are discussing the discovery of a rare Pickman painting of a ghoul in a cemetery. Eliot has purchased the painting and Larry assures him that the last Pickman was worth over $100,000. However, Eliot wonders if it’s his to sell and Larry notes that Pickman disappeared 75 years ago and left no relatives. They realize that the artist, Richard Pickman, must have lived in the loft, and paid for the rent by giving art lessons to the daughters of rich men. Larry comments that Pickman wore gloves in the last few years of his lives, and no one knew what it was that he concealed.



Seventy-five years ago, Richard Upton Pickman displays his painting, Ghoul Preparing to Die, to a class of young female students. One of them, Mavis Goldsmith, is intrigued as Pickman explains that his display of the painting brought down the wrath of the city elders. Mavis notes that he has said to paint what they know, and asks where he’s seen such a monster. Pickman explains that he imagines that and similar paintings, and examines her painting. It shows a vase filled with dead flowers and his own face, and she explains that she sees him with a form of magnetism. Mavis then explains that she bought one of Pickman’s paintings, View From an Artist’s Window, and he dismisses it as something he painted before his own self-discovery, without any monstrous elements. He insists that it is not an authentic Pickman painting, and then draws what he sees onto Mavis’ painting: a ghoulish face to replace his own. He warns everyone to beware of self-portraits for danger of revealing one’s soul.



Mrs. Dewitt, the institute’s headmistress, arrives and notes that Pickman was hired to teach techniques for painting real-life images. She tells him that he’s being dismissed as an improper role model, and gives him payment until the end of the month. After Mrs. Dewitt leaves, Mavis, who has overheard the entire thing, insists that the headmistress was wrong. He dismisses her concern as motivated by her rich and arrogant background and angrily storms off.

Later, Mavis finds Pickman at a tea room and approaches him. She admits that she followed him there to offer him sympathetic company, but he insists he doesn’t need human company. Mavis insists on sitting with him and he reluctantly accepts her presence. She explains that she painted the flowers as a self-portrait, and asks why he sees himself as a beast. He dodges the question and leaves for his studio, and Mavis asks to accompany him. Pickman says that no one has ever come to his studio, and Mavis admits that no one knows where it is. He explains that he believes his work is exclusively his own until he finishes it, and she asks when his series of paintings will be done, a series so horrible they would turn the viewer to stone. Mavis asks him to tell all about them, and Pickman talks of a foul eldritch race that dwell in darkness while spawning until the day they are ready to conquer the earth. As he starts to go, Mavis asks to see his paintings and addresses him by his first name. She admits that she loves him, but Pickman warns that nothing good can come of her feelings and leaves, forgetting his painting. Mavis picks up the ghoul painting and contemplates it.



At home, Mavis has her Uncle George look at Pickman’s View painting and place where it was painted. He warns her that it’s in the North End, an unsavory part of town, and describes a legend of a breed of strange creatures that built tunnels throughout the city, and that they were rumored to be responsible for the disappearance of bodies from the cemetery. Remembering what Pickman said, Mavis asks if anyone tried to prove the creatures’ existence, and Uncle George confirms that some men sought out the creatures that had abducted their wives, allegedly for breeding purposes. The creatures were never found despite the best efforts, and all known passages to the underground tunnels were sealed.



Mavis goes to the North End with the painting and locates the loft studio providing the view. She knocks on the door, unaware that a figure with a clawed, scaled hand is watching her from a window. When Mavis tries the door, she finds it unlocked and goes inside. The figure closes the door behind her and scurries up the stairs before she can identify it, and the lantern light goes out. Mavis goes up the stairs and storms into the studio, and finds the series of paintings showing the ghoul creatures feeding on corpses and preying on women. She places her painting with the others and then turns in shock as Pickman enters the room. He demands to know how Mavis found his studio, and she explains about tracking him via the painting. Pickman tells her that she must go and she begs him to stay. He pleads with her to go and never return.



Footsteps echo on the stairs and Pickman tells Mavis that it’s too late. He grabs a poker, tells her to stay in the room, and goes outside, closing the door behind him. Mavis looks around and finds one more painting of a mother and her young son... and one of the ghouls behind them. She hears Pickman ordering something back into the cellar, promising to let them live out their lives in the tunnel. The door opens and a ghoul creature enters the room. She faints and it carries her out onto the landing, where a wounded Pickman attacks it. Mavis wakes up and sees Pickman fighting the creature. His gloves have ripped off, revealing scaled, clawed hands like those of the ghouls. Pickman tells Mavis to run, and then grabs it and falls off through the railing to the floor below. As Mavis goes to the door, the ghoul gets up, picks up Pickman, and goes to the cellar.



Later, Mavis brings Uncle George to the studio. She has him bring the bricklayers to seal off the entrance in the cellar, and then collects Pickman’s paintings. As they go, Mavis assures her uncle that Pickman painted what he saw, and what he was.

In the present day, Larry offers to help search for the lost Pickman paintings. They work their way down to the basement and find a bricked-over cistern. They decide to open it and see if the paintings are stored within it. As they go to work, Eliot notes that Pickman’s canvases weren’t the only thing that disappeared. Below, a creature looks up as the bricks start to give.



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