Darryl A. Meneweather
Art History II, Renaissance to Modernism
Instructor: Jenn Wilson
Ivan Albright
American, 1897-1983
Picture of Dorian Gray, 1943-1944
Ivan Albright painted this lurid portrait for the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the movie Dorian Gray played an attractive guy who trades his soul for a permanent preservation of his youthful appearance. Ivan uses an oil medium to create a more 3-d effect to his painting of Dorian Gray, and the reason the picture of Gray looks so horrid is because the artist wanted to portray the rots of Gray physchomogically to reveal the extent of his moral corruption. (ironically Dorian Gray was to be this “handsome Devil” but in the picture he looks horrific). In 1943 he was commissioned to create the title painting for Albert Lewin’s film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. His realistic, but exaggerated, depictions of decay and corruption made him very well suited to undertake such a project. His brother was chosen to do the original uncorrupted painting of Gray, but the painting used on the film was from Henrique Medina. Ivan made the changes in the painting during the film. This original painting currently resides in the Art Institute of Chicago.(© The Art Institute of Chicago.)
When I first viewed this picture I didn’t really understand it. Like there was a lot going on and a lot to decipher, especially since I had not seen the movie. After researching the movie I understood it much more easily. In my opinion Ivan’s painting explains Dorian Gray perfectly. The fact that he sold his soul to preserve his youthful appearance leads you to believe he looks like the picture Ivan’s brother painted of Gray, but in the case of Ivan’s painting he thoroughly explains how demented Gray becomes throughout his increasingly dissolute and evil life. His clothes are really torn and he basically looks like a really old poor guy, He is bald on the top of his head and his face is completely wrinkled. And Ivan shows exactly what Gray would look like though all of his evil actions throughout his life.
The central aspect to me is actually the background of the picture. Ivan does a good job depicting Gray but he really shows like a better depiction of his evil life in the background. You see things like a black cat, which obviously indicates evil. Along with the skulls and the more mystical looking beings in the background. It’s ironic to me that Ivan doesn’t just paint an all black background to show the darkness of Gray’s behavior throughout his life but instead shows the mystical part of it. It takes a part of the story and explains it in a more out of the box kind of way. The fact that Gray sold his soul means he made a deal, and it had to be evil because theoretically God or an Angel wouldn’t want to do any deals for someone’s soul. So it was apparently dark and evil. The background of the painting basically shows the transition to me.
