The Bernardo de Gálvez portrait

A painting of Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spanish general, that hangs in Galveston's Hotel Galvez in Texas. Local folklore says photographs of it fail unless you ask his permission first.

Wikipedia gives the general's dates as 1746 to 1786 and says the painting hangs in Galveston's Hotel Galvez. It says some viewers find a skull in flash photos of it, and that local folklore has visitors ask the ghost's permission before taking a picture, or the photo will be spoiled. Sources place the painting differently: Wikipedia puts it where a hallway ends, while the Houston Chronicle's Chron site places it at the landing of the lobby's main stairs.

In 2012 Helen Anders of the Austin American-Statesman took the hotel's ghost tour with concierge Jackie Hasan, which began at the portrait. Hasan told her that some visitors spot a skull in it. Anders wrote that her own photo, enlarged a great deal, showed a flash reflection roughly the shape of a skull, which a viewer could read either way.

In 2023 Chris Gray wrote in Chron that regular visitors ask Gálvez for permission before photographing the portrait, in case the picture shows only his skull. He reported that Melissa Hall, who has long worked as a concierge there, leads ghost tours of the hotel lasting 90 minutes, several each week, with prices from $30.