Before reading this book, the cover implied a simple theme. The light shade of green is calming and peaceful. The women appears sad, almost does not want to be there. Before opening the novel, I took the women to be Lucy.
During my reading, the painting adds empathy for Lucy. She does not look happy in the painting, which explains Lucy story forward. Lucy is not able to please everyone, but must do things for herself. She chose to leave her family behind, and she left Mariah. Her hand in the painting makes her appear to be choosing for herself.
The artist had a couple of interesting decisions about the painting. The women is topless, and in the novel we learned that Lucy learned to be modest. However, Lucy considers herself a slut. Personally, a book with a topless women always makes me hesitate to read. Our culture has deemed it unacceptable, which further adds to the cultural differences. Also, the painter used shading over the top part of the body. Almost as if, someone was standing over her. Though the painting changed my reading, the Kincaid had a purpose in using this particular shot.
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I like your observation about how the woman's hand in the painting "makes her appear to be choosing for herself." I mentioned something similar in my blog about how I thought the raised hand suggested Lucy's desire for independence and detachment from a real relationship with a man. If you're interested, you should check it out: http://sam-samslivestimes.blogspot.com/.
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