Levin, whose film was universally acknowledged in 1945, was not the first to be inspired by Dorian Gray's story (only at least seven of these films were in the 1910s), but he was the first to have commissioned such a unique painting by the artist . Albright made himself a reputation in the 1930s as grotesque, almost nauseous, detailed portraits of men and women whose bodies appear on the verge of decay.