Look Closely: Black Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell

In April 1980, Black Sabbath unleashed Heaven and Hell, their first with Ronnie James Dio at the helm, and the iconic cover art was inspired by a charming 1928 photograph of some young women dressed as angels and smoking madly.

In 1980 Black Sabbath, fronted by the great Ronnie James Dio at the time, were in a jam. They were releasing a new album called Heaven and Hell and the original album cover idea was not working out.

Enter artist Lynn Curlee. “The Smoking Angels” painting was not commissioned specifically for the heavy metal legends, rather inspired by a charming 1928 photograph of some young women dressed as angels, madly smoking and playing cards during their short break between acts at a college Christmas pageant.

Smoking Angels took Curlee three weeks to complete.

“It was done in acrylic on canvas, and measured about 4 by 6 feet,” he says. “I work with standard brushes in a meticulous technique, with no airbrushing. Since the painting already existed, it didn’t exactly fit into the square album format, so the right side had to be severely cropped. Of course, the original painting includes the entire wing of that angel.”

What the artist didn’t mention was that two of the angels had been removed for the painting. Can you tell which ones? Here’s my rather primitive mock-up.

They say that life’s a carousel
Spinning fast, you’ve got to ride it well
The world is full of kings and queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It’s heaven and hell, oh well