A portrait of the British singer Lily Allen is now on view at London’s National Portrait Gallery as part of the museum’s contemporary collection. The painting by Spanish artist Nieves González was used as the cover art for Allen’s latest album, West End Girl, released last year.
West End Girl (Lily Allen) (2025), which is owned by Allen, features the singer wearing a giant blue-and-white polka-dotted puffer jacket against a dark background. After commissioning González, Allen felt that the artist had “captured the feel of the album so brilliantly,” so she decided to use it for the cover art.
“It seems to me the portrait reflects so many facets of the album—strength, power, vulnerability, determination, and confusion, among many others—that it acts as a key to the whole listening experience,” Allen said in a statement. “I love it. I’m so pleased to make this special painting available in the National Portrait Gallery, for everyone to see.”
González, who is largely inspired by Baroque art, is known for her dramatic, opulent portraits, often depicting women in voluminous puffer jackets. “Using the language of the great historical portraits is not about looking back, it’s about claiming that authority and putting it at the service of a new narrative,” the artist explained in a statement.
“I wanted it to be an intimate and direct image, but also powerful,” Gonzalez said of the Allen portrait. “To show [Allen’s] strength, her wisdom, through the eyes of the contemporary women that we are. That balance between the classical and the contemporary was essential to me. This work reflects how art and music come together in the act of creation, with all its layers and facets….This West End girl has become something more than an image, and I feel enormously fortunate to have been part of that journey.”
A master’s graduate of the University of Seville, González has presented solo shows at Bilbao’s SC Gallery, July/T239 Gallery in Rome, and Espacio O Gallery in Huelva, Spain. Her next exhibition will be mounted by Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles this June.
