Welsh rock photographer Justin Thomas has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in New York against American painter Elizabeth Peyton, alleging she copied his 1995 photograph of Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher for a painting that sold at auction for $1.92 million in May 2026.
The Photograph and the Painting
The dispute centres on a now-iconic image Thomas captured at an after-party in London’s Earl’s Court in 1995, showing the famously feuding Gallagher brothers sharing a rare, affectionate kiss. The following year, Peyton created an oil painting titled Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) (1996), which closely mirrors the composition, pose, and moment of Thomas’s photograph.
In his complaint, filed on 20 August in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Thomas describes Peyton’s work as a “slavish copy” of his photograph, arguing that the only transformations are the change of medium, slight cropping, and the addition of colour and brushwork.
The lawsuit names three defendants:
- Elizabeth Peyton, the artist who created the Oasis painting
- David Zwirner Gallery, which represents Peyton and displays the work on its website
- Sotheby’s, which auctioned the painting in New York in May 2026
Thomas alleges direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement, claiming that the gallery and auction house further violated his rights by reproducing, displaying, and distributing the painting and profiting from its sale. The work had been estimated to fetch between $1.5 million and $2 million before selling for $1,920,000.
Thomas’s attorney, Terry Parker, frames the painting as effectively reproducing the “captured iconic moment” of the Gallagher kiss, with minimal creative departure from the original image. The outcome could clarify how far painters can go when working from specific, identifiable press and music photographs without permission.
Cover image: Elizabeth Peyton, Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) (1996). Photo: courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Pari tiwari is a third year english literature student at Delhi University. She is interested in art, Feminism, politics of representation, literature, philosophy, film, and photography.
