An album's cover, it can be argued, is just as important as its contents.
It is, after all, the first thing a potential listener sees when they examine an LP, So selecting something eye-catching is important. Many artists opt to hire a designer, whose job it is to hear the ideas of the band or solo musician — What colors should be used? Will the group appear on the front cover themselves? What sort of font would work best for the LP's title? — and turn them into a visual reality. In a number of instances, artists end up choosing a cover that can be visited in real life.
In the below gallery of 26 Paintings That Became Album Covers, you'll notice two sections. The first contains album covers for which a piece of artwork was directly reproduced. Even if only a portion of the artwork was used, it appears precisely as it originally did .In fact, several of the below pieces of artwork can be viewed in person in museums around the world.
The second section is devoted to covers that, in some form, modified the initial art. In some cases, different colors were used, like on Deep Purple's 1969 self-titled release, which used a black-and-white scheme. In other instances, like Joni Mitchell's Turbulent Indigo, Mitchell herself painted the cover using a Van Gogh painting as her model.
You'll also notice four "bonus" entries for albums whose covers featured not a painting, but some other original form of artwork. Read on for more...
26 Paintings That Became Album Covers
Worthy of hanging in a museum.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
The Bee Gees, 'Trafalgar' (1971)
Polydor, Atco
The Bee Gees, 'Trafalgar' (1971)
The title of the Bee Gees' Trafalgar is a nod to the painting that graces its cover: The Battle of Trafalgar by Nicholas Pocock. Painted in 1805, it currently is stored at the National Maritime Museum in London.
The Cars, 'Heartbeat City' (1984)
Elektra
The Cars, 'Heartbeat City' (1984)
It certainly makes a lot of sense that a band called the Cars, whose songs often revolved around girls, would put an image of a car and a girl on the front of an album cover. They did so with a couple of their releases, including 1984's Heartbeat City, which shows a portion of a 1972 piece called Art-O-Matic Loop Di Loop by Peter Phillips, a leading figure in the world of pop art.
Bruce Dickinson, 'Tyranny of Souls' (2005)
Sanctuary
Bruce Dickinson, 'Tyranny of Souls' (2005)
With a title like Tyranny of Souls, it would make sense that this Bruce Dickinson album has an image of a devilish figure on the cover. It's part of a larger piece, one of the several panels of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation by the Renaissance artist Hans Memling. The full piece is displayed at the Strasbourg Museum of Fine Arts in France.
Bob Dylan, 'Oh Mercy' (1989)
Columbia
Bob Dylan, 'Oh Mercy' (1989)
It's not entirely clear when, but at some point, Bob Dylan was out and about in New York City when he saw a mural on the wall of a Chinese restaurant on 9th Avenue and 53rd Street. He apparently liked the artwork so much that he asked CBS to track down the artist, a man named Trotsky, to ask permission to use it on an album cover. Though he initially thought it was a joke, Trotsky agreed and his mural became the cover star of 1989's Oh Mercy.
Bob Dylan, 'Modern Times' (2006)
Columbia
Bob Dylan, 'Modern Times' (2006)
Oh Mercy wasn't the only Dylan album cover with a New York connection. The cover of his 2006 LP Modern Times features a black-and-white photo titled Taxi, New York Night by Ted Croner, whose primary subject was the city. The photograph resides at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Fleetwood Mac, 'Tango in the Night' (1987)Warner Bros.
Fleetwood Mac, 'Tango in the Night' (1987)
Conveniently, the cover of Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night was already nearby, hanging in the home of Lindsey Buckingham himself. The painting, Homage to Henri Rousseau, was made by an artist named Brett-Livingstone Strong, who also made artwork depicting John Lennon, Michael Jackson and John Wayne.
Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite for Destruction' (1987)Geffen
Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite for Destruction' (1987)
Originally, Axl Rose hoped to use an image of the Challenger explosion on the cover of Guns N' Roses debut album, but this was swiftly dismissed by Geffen executives. But the image that was ultimately chosen, a 1978 painting titled Appetite for Destruction by Robert Williams depicting a young woman who'd just been raped by a robot, also caused some understandable backlash. "This was for a select intelligent group that loved this kind of shit," Williams told Entertainment Weekly in 2017. "I made it for the advanced art connoisseurs that came out of the underground in the '60s and '70s."
The Jeff Beck Group, 'Beck-Ola' (1969)Epic
The Jeff Beck Group, 'Beck-Ola' (1969)
On the cover of the Jeff Beck Group's Beck-Ola is Rene Magritte's The Listening Room, festuring an enormous green apple. (It can be found in the Menil Collection in Houston.) Apples appeared in a number of Magritte's pieces. "Those of my pictures that show very familiar objects, an apple, for example, pose questions," he explained. "We no longer understand when we look at an apple; its mysterious quality has thus been evoked." Interestingly, one of Magritte's paintings, 1966's Le Jeu de Mourre helped inspire the company logo for the Beatles' Apple Corps.
Kansas, 'Kansas' (1974)Kirshner, Epic
Kansas, 'Kansas' (1974)
In 1942, John Steuart Curry painted an impressive mural for the Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. Titled Tragic Prelude, it depicts the abolitionist John Brown standing boldly in front of Union and Confederate soldiers. "I think [Brown] is the prototype of a great many Kansans," Curry said of the painting. "Someone described a Kansan as one who went about wreaking good on humanity." Just over three decades later, a portion of the mural appeared on the front cover of Kansas' self-titled debut album.
Kansas, 'Masque' (1975)Kirshner, Epic
Kansas, 'Masque' (1975)
A year after their debut, Kansas once again selected a painting for the cover of their album, Masque. This time it was a 16th century painting titled Water by the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. As one might assume, it's part of a series of paintings, The Four Elements, the others being air, fire and earth. The set lives at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.
Live, 'Throwing Copper' (1994)Radioactive
Live, 'Throwing Copper' (1994)
"This painting was done at a time when I was walking on the road to self-destruction," artist Peter Howson said of his piece Sisters of Mercy in 2005. Over a decade prior to that, it had appeared on the cover of Live's Throwing Copper. "Obviously this is not my most optimistic creation," Howson continued, "but I am glad when something moves people to question our existence."
Mark Knopfler, 'Kill to Get Crimson' (2007)Mercury, Warner Bros.
Mark Knopfler, 'Kill to Get Crimson' (2007)
Mark Knopfler owns his own recording studio, British Grove, which opened in 2005. It's where Knopfler has recorded all of his solo albums since 2007's Kill to Get Crimson, the cover of which features a painting called Four Lambrettas and Three Portraits of Janet Churchman by John Bratby. The real oil painting from 1958 actually hangs on the wall of British Grove.
New Order, 'Power, Corruption & Lies' (1983)Factory
New Order, 'Power, Corruption & Lies' (1983)
For the cover of their second studio album, Power, Corruption & Lies, New Order went with an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Ignace-Henri-Theodore Fantin-Latour, titled A Basket of Roses. This came to be when the English designer Peter Saville, who worked with Factory Records, picked up a postcard depicting the painting at the National Gallery in London, where the piece still resides today, and his girlfriend jokingly asked if it would be the album cover. But it turns out Saville liked the idea.
Tom Petty, 'Southern Accents' (1985)MCA
Tom Petty, 'Southern Accents' (1985)
Tom Petty's Southern Accents was originally conceived as something of a concept album about his southern roots. Elements of this idea remained in the finish product, and the point was especially driven home by the album's cover. It shows an 1865 painting by Winslow Homer titled The Veteran in a New Field, set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. It resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Tom Petty, 'Into the Great Wide Open' (1991)MCA
Tom Petty, 'Into the Great Wide Open' (1991)
The artist Jan Matulka was well-known for combining characteristics of Abstract expressionism into his landscapes paintings, like in his 1921 piece Autumn Landscape. Owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it appeared on the cover of Tom Petty's 1991 album, Into the Great Wide Open.
Prince, 'The Rainbow Children' (2001)NPG, Redline Entertainment
Prince, 'The Rainbow Children' (2001)
In 1998, Prince played a show in Collinsville, Illinois, where he was introduced via his staff to the work of artist Cbabi Bayoc. Prince purchased three pieces of his art then, but that would not be the last time they crossed paths. A few years later, Prince reached back out to Bayoc, asking to see more. Bayoc showed him a few pieces, including one called Reine Keis Quintet, which Prince was drawn to for its depiction of an all-female band. Prince, who had used an all-female band on his album The Rainbow Children, wound up selecting this art for its cover. (The art reportedly still hangs in Paisley Park Studios.)
Paul Simon, 'Graceland' (1986)Warner Bros.
Paul Simon, 'Graceland' (1986)
It appears Paul Simon takes the cake on this list when it comes to the oldest artwork used for an album cover. On the front of 1986's Graceland is an ancient piece of art from Ethiopia depicting St. George. It dates back to the 15th century and in the album's liner notes, it was reported that the art was displayed in a 1978 Peabody Essex Museum exhibition in Salem, Massachusetts.
Sonic Youth, 'Daydream Nation' (1988)Enigma
Sonic Youth, 'Daydream Nation' (1988)
On the cover of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation is a 1983 painting by Gerhard Richter called Kerze, the German word for "candle." (The piece would later sell for a little over 16 millions dollars in 2011.) A second Richter piece can be seen on the back cover of Daydream Nation.
Van Halen, 'Fair Warning' (1981)
Warner Bros.
Van Halen, 'Fair Warning' (1981)
Only a small portion of William Kurelek's The Maze is visible on the cover of Van Halen's Fair Warning — the full painting is worth a look. Kurelek, who suffered from mental illness, painted it while a patient at Maudsley Hospital in London and it was meant to illustrate the inner workings of his mind to the doctors treating him. "Now clean me out," he wrote in his autobiography, "I challenge you scientists, and put me back together again – a happy, balanced, mature, fulfilled personality."
The Beach Boys, 'Surf's Up' (1971)
Brother, Reprise
The Beach Boys, 'Surf's Up' (1971)
We've now entered the section of this list containing albums whose covers don't necessarily use exact reproductions of artwork, but rather some modified version. To begin, the Beach Boys' Surfs Up features a painting that's based on a 1918 sculpture called End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser, portraying a weathered Native American atop a horse. It can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Deep Purple, 'Deep Purple' (1969)Tetragrammaton, Harvest
Deep Purple, 'Deep Purple' (1969)
For their debut album, Deep Purple went with a portion of a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch called The Garden of Earthly Delights. Painted somewhere between 1490 and 1510, it has lived at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since 1939. On the LP cover, the lower right quadrant of the piece was used and changed to black-and-white.
Bruce Dickinson, 'The Chemical Wedding' (1998)Air Raid
Bruce Dickinson, 'The Chemical Wedding' (1998)
Bruce Dickinson not only used a painting by William Blake, The Ghost of a Flea, for the cover of 1998's The Chemical Wedding, he also drew inspiration from Blake's poetry for its songs. Blake purportedly once had a spiritual vision involving the ghost of a flea, who told the artist that fleas were inhabited by the souls of men who were "by nature bloodthirsty to excess." The piece lives at the Tate in London.
The Grateful Dead, 'Grateful Dead' (1971)Warner Bros.
The Grateful Dead, 'Grateful Dead' (1971)
It's one of the most recognizable images in rock history: the Grateful Dead's skeleton with a crown of roses. The cover of 1971's Grateful Dead was designed by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse, but it was based on a much older sketch by a man named Edmund Joseph Sullivan. His drawing, A Skeleton Amid Roses, was included in a 1913 printing of a Persian poetry book titled The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Guns N' Roses, 'Use Your Illusion I' (1991)Geffen
Guns N' Roses, 'Use Your Illusion I' (1991)
Like Deep Purple above, Guns N' Roses' took a painting, used a portion of it and modified the color scheme for the cover of their 1991 album, Use Your Illusion I. Visible on the cover is a detail from The School of Athens by the famous Renaissance artist Raphael. The 16th century original can be viewed at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican museums.
Guns N' Roses, 'Chinese Democracy' (2008)Geffen
Guns N' Roses, 'Chinese Democracy' (2008)
The first piece of art Axl Rose wanted for 2008's Chinese Democracy was not possible to use — the artist denied permission. A photograph by Terry Hardin was ultimately chosen, but there was also an alternative cover that was released as an "art edition" of the LP. It featured a piece from Shi Lifeng's Control series.
Joni Mitchell, 'Turbulent Indigo' (1994)
Reprise
Joni Mitchell, 'Turbulent Indigo' (1994)
Before she turning to songwriting, Joni Mitchell's first artistic love was painting. She never dropped the habit once she got into the music industry, and her own artwork appeared on the cover of her albums a number of times, including on 1994's Turbulent Indigo. It features a self-portrait done by Mitchell, which mimics Vincent Van Gogh's Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear.
Led Zeppelin, 'Led Zeppelin IV' (1971)
Atlantic
Led Zeppelin, 'Led Zeppelin IV' (1971)
The painting of the old man on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV actually derived from a photograph that Robert Plant bought at an antique shop. For many years, the identity of the man was unknown. Then, in 2023, it was discerned that the photo had been taken somewhere around 1892 by photography teacher Ernest Howard Farmer. It was titled A Wiltshire Thatcher.
The Pogues, 'Rum Sodomy & the Lash' (1985)
Stiff, MCA
The Pogues, 'Rum Sodomy & the Lash' (1985)
Look closely at the cover of the Pogues' Rum Sodomy & the Lash and you'll notice that the band members' faces have been placed on the painting's figures. The art, titled The Raft of the Medusa, was made in the early 19th century by Theodore Gericault. It lives at the Louvre in Paris.
Rod Stewart, 'A Night on the Town' (1976)
Riva, Warner Bros.
Rod Stewart, 'A Night on the Town' (1976)
Like the Pogues, Rod Stewart was able to incorporate his own face into a famous painting for the cover of 1976's A Night on the Town. The cover is based on Bal du moulin de la Galette by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one of his best-known Impressionist works. The original painting lives at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
The Smashing Pumpkins, 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' (1995)
Virgin
The Smashing Pumpkins, 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' (1995)
The woman on the front cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is actually a composite of two different women from two different paintings. Her face draws from The Souvenir by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, while her body comes from Raphael's portrait of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.