Jump to content

Edit Style
Primary: Sky Slate Blackcurrant Watermelon Strawberry Orange Banana Apple Emerald Chocolate Marble
Secondary: Sky Slate Blackcurrant Watermelon Strawberry Orange Banana Apple Emerald Chocolate Marble
Pattern: Blank Waves Squares Notes Sharp Wood Rockface Leather Honey Vertical Triangles
Welcome to Led Zeppelin Official Forum
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.
Login to Account Create an Account
Photo

The Hermit Painting

Started by The Only Way To Fly , Jun 09 2012 07:42 AM

  • Please log in to reply
3 replies to this topic

#1
The Only Way To Fly
Posted 09 June 2012 - 07:42 AM

The Only Way To Fly

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPip
  • 76 posts
Does anyone know what happened to the painting after it was used for the cover of Zeppelin IV? I've heard that Plant picked up the painting in Bath, but was just wondering what ever happened to it, who has it, & if there have been any photo's of it outside of the album's cover?

#2
The Only Way To Fly
Posted 09 June 2012 - 07:45 AM

The Only Way To Fly

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPip
  • 76 posts
sorry, not that you needed a reminder of what it looked like, but here it is anyway. thanks.

Attached Files


#3
SteveAJones
Posted 09 June 2012 - 08:32 PM

SteveAJones

    The Alchemist's Archivist

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 14,140 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Tokyo

I've heard that Plant picked up the painting in Bath


According to Jimmy, he and Robert found the image strictly by chance: "I used to spend a lot of time going to junk shops looking for things that other people might have missed. Robert was on a search with me one time, and we went to this place in Reading (not far from Jimmy's boathouse in Pangbourne) where things were just piled up on one another. Robert found the picture of the old man with the sticks and suggested that we work it into our cover somehow. So we decided to contrast the modern skyscraper on the back with the old man with the sticks - you see the destruction of the old, and the new coming forward."

Personally I'm not convinced that story is true. I still suspect Jimmy may have commissioned an artist to paint it - if he did not paint it himself - just as he did for the inside album cover art. The figure on the cover bears a striking resemblance to a preeminent occult figure, George Pickingill.

"The cover was supposed to be something that was for other people to savour rather than for me to actually spell everything out, which would make the whole thing rather disappointing on that level of your own personal adventure into the music." -- Jimmy Page

#4
dazedjeffy
Posted 09 June 2012 - 10:49 PM

dazedjeffy

    Zep Head

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 789 posts
  • Gender:Male
Posted Image

Pamela Colman Smith also worked as a book illustrator but her other work is overshadowed completely by the popularity of the Rider-Waite cards. Her design for The Hermit was famously borrowed by Crowley obsessive Jimmy Page in 1971 for an inner sleeve illustration, View in Half or Varying Light by Barrington Colby, for Led Zeppelin IV.

http://www.johncoult...th-1878–1951/
Back to Photos


  1. Led Zeppelin Official Forum
  2. → Main Forum
  3. → Photos

HOME | NEWS | DISCOGRAPHY | TIMELINE | PHOTOS | VIDEO | 12.10.07 | MERCHANDISE | CONTACT

LedZeppelin.com