% This creates the 'background' axes

ha = axes('units','normalized', ...

            'position',[0 0 1 1]);

% Move the background axes to the bottom

uistack(ha,'bottom');

% Load in a background image and display it using the correct colors

% The image used below, is in the Image Processing Toolbox.  If you do not have %access to this toolbox, you can use another image file instead.

I=imread('eight.tif');

hi = imagesc(I)

colormap gray

% Turn the handlevisibility off so that we don't inadvertently plot into the axes again

% Also, make the axes invisible

set(ha,'handlevisibility','off', ...

            'visible','off')

% Now we can use the figure, as required.

% For example, we can put a plot in an axes

axes('position',[0.3,0.35,0.4,0.4])

plot(rand(10))