Last year, Duran Duran released their Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre. Today, the pop-rock band finally revealed the identity of the woman on the cover of their 1982 album Rio: a model by the name of Marcie Hunt.
The artwork was famously painted by Patrick Nagel, and the Instagram fan account @nagel_angel spent “countless hours” researching before coming across a reference photo in a 1981 issue of Vogue Paris that Nagel used. (Malcolm Garrett then designed the Rio cover to resemble 1950s cigar packaging.)
The news was shared by Nagel historian and art broker Monica Moynihan on the social media platform. Hunt, who now goes by Marcie Dinkel, commented on Duran Duran’s repost: “This is so cool! I absolutely did not know until now that this photo of me was used for the Rio cover. Very exciting! Love Duran Duran, and danced to their music often in the 80s…and later at my wedding.”
Nagel passed away two years after making the illustration, and his technical art assistant Barry Hahn reportedly confirmed that the photo of Hunt inspired the artwork.