Earlier today, Titan Comics released the cover gallery for all the variants of Doctor Who: Four Doctors that will be released on Doctor Who Comics Day.  Among the nineteen covers is this striking piece by artist David Carr that has undertones of Edward Hopper, directly quotes some masterpieces, and brings to mind another famous piece of pop art composed of frames on a wall, the album cover of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s Pictures At an Exhibition.

The artist responded to my query today with the following:

A lot of my work is based off of puns, parody and homages.  The original painting it’s loosely based on is called “The Connoisseur” by Norman Rockwell.

Norman Rockwell. The Connoisseur. 1962.

I took that painting earlier this year and then did a single image of Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor in a Van Gogh Gallery.

David Carr: Vincent and the Doctor.

When I was approached about  creating the cover for the Four Doctors issue, I was asked to expand upon that idea.  Originally, I wanted to have the four figures looking at a picture of the Last Supper with all the figures replaced with Doctors, but Titan was concerned about getting approval for that.

David Carr: Infinite Supper.

Still, I wanted to have the figures looking at a famous painting, so I chose Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon with the figures replaced by the four Doctors and the Tardis.

And just for fun the other paintings hanging in the gallery are inspired by other artists including  Van Gogh and Monet.