Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: Art, Instagram, Social Media, Viral
Callum Jones
Even if the artistic skill may not be there nowadays, the vast majority of us did a bit of painting in our younger years.
Typically, these creations were ideal to give your mom to put on the fridge, and not worth anything.
But for one two-year-old boy that was certainly not the case.
Laurent Schwarz loves to paint and has been doing so since he visited the Hotel Feuerstein in South Tyrol, Italy in November last year.
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The hotel had a painting room for kids and Laurent's mom, Lisa Schwarz, couldn't get her toddler out of it.
And Laurent's obsession for painting did not stop when he returned home, with Lisa, 32, even setting up an Instagram account to share her son's impressionist artwork.
Not thinking much of it at the time, videos and snaps of Laurent's artwork quickly went viral.
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The two-year-old even had requests from all over the world wanting to buy his impressive creations.
So, Laurent has been able to sell 19 of his paintings in the past six months, with the most expensive one selling for nearly $11,000 (€10,000).
Lisa, from Neubeuern, Germany, said: "I had no idea that these videos, some of which have 5m views, would be so popular.
"There are so many requests for Laurent's pictures from all over the world.
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"Everyone wants to buy his pictures and some people are offering unimaginable sums."
The proud mom added: "On average we have gotten between €6,000 and €7,000 for his paintings.
"We are keeping our prices stable even though the demand is very high but we could make a lot more.
"We want Laurent's paintings to be able to hang in homes all over the world."
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Laurent even has a further two paintings yet to be sold, though they have garnered great interest.
Despite all the money he could rake in, Lisa insists that Laurent only paints when he wants.
"Sometimes he paints twice a day and sometimes he doesn't paint at all for two weeks," Lisa said.
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"He has to want to do it and that varies from day to day. After all, he's only two years old.
"If at some point he doesn't feel like drawing anymore then that's it and it's one click and the Instagram channel is deleted."
All of the money generated from the painting sales will be placed into a fund which Laurent can access when he turns 18.