born Feb. 20, 1897, North Harvey, Ill., U.S.
died Nov. 18, 1983, Woodstock, Vt.
U.S. painter.
He was the son of a painter. Independently wealthy, he studied at various institutions, developing a meticulously detailed style and often spending several years of painstaking work on a single painting. With pinpoint exactness and hallucinatory hyperclarity, he repeatedly depicted decay, corruption, and the wreckage of age, often with great emotional intensity. Among his important works is That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (1931–41). He gained fame with his portrait (1943–44) of the title character in the film The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), depicting the final stage of Gray's dissolute life.