Why is the man on the cover of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar WIlde there?

Factual Questions
1

I apologize in advance - the person’s name in the painting on the cover of this book by Oscar Wilde is written on the back. I have forgotten what it is and no longer have a copy of the book. It was never clear to me why this particular person is featured on the cover. Can anyone shed some light on this?

2

Thanks to Google Books, the cover painting is “Portrait of Franz Liszt” by Henri Lehmann. Other than that Wilde and Liszt were contemporaries, I still don’t see why Liszt was put on on the cover of Wilde’s book.

3

It’s just one edition of the book. The publisher probably decided that painting was public domain and apropriately dark and brooding.
Here’s some other covers:
1 2 3 4 5 6

4

I would presume that we are to take the portrait of Liszt as a portait of the Dorian Grey Character. The pose, lighting, and general look of the Liszt portrait definitely reflects the characterization of Dorian Grey in the book.

5

Except there has to be a hand visible to get covered in blood.

Isn’t garygnu’s #3 a picture of Oscar Wilde himself? I had yet another version, an oil portrait of a standing handsome blond guy.

6

There’s no specific reason; it was chosen because it gives the impression the designer wanted to give, and it was probably free.

7

Wait–you *do *know that it’s fiction? That there’s no *actual *picture of Dorian Gray to put on the cover?

8

…

9

I’m not saying it’s supposed to be the Picture of Dorian Gray that ages in the book. I’m saying that it’s a portrait of Dorian Gray, the main character in the book, i.e. not the actual painting in the book.

10

One of my dearest friends works in the art department of a very well-known national publisher here in NYC. Just a couple of weeks ago she was telling me about a cover she was working on for a novel that’s in the public domain. Many editions of the same story published by rival houses feature a sailing ship on the cover, she told me. But when she actually took the time to read some of the novel she learned that the book does not mention a sailing ship at all; the vessel is a steamship. She rolled her eyes and screamed, “I don’t think anybody reads any of these books before they slap any old cover on them!”