A 19th-century artwork that has inspired artists from Salvador Dalí to Ed Ruscha may be the influence behind the cover for Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album, “The Life of A Showgirl.” Punctuated with glittery text and fractured visuals, the album cover depicts Swift in a showgirl-inspired bejeweled bodysuit, floating partially submerged in a pool of cloudy water — an apparent reference to the famous painting “Ophelia” (1851–2) by British artist John Everett Millais. The first song on the tracklist is also titled “The Fate of the Ophelia.” Inspired by Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (1599–1601), Millais’s work portrays Hamlet’s rejected lover Ophelia in the moments before her tragic death by drowning in a brook. Like Swift in her album cover, she is shown mostly underwater with her palms facing upward and in shimmery garb. But unlike the painting’s subject, Swift makes direct eye contact with the viewer. Subliminal messaging aside, it’s clear that the album is already having its own ripple eff...