"The Picture of Dorian Gray" Research

There are a couple resources that would help me very much with researching the art I have chosen for this essay. Ivan Albright was actually commissioned to paint “The Picture of Dorian Gray” for the 1940s film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel. So renting the movie would probably be a great asset to my research into this artwork. Reading the novel would be very beneficial as well. The story is about Dorian Gray, a very vain man, who trades his soul for an ever-youthful appearance. As the still-handsome Gray leads an increasingly dissolute and evil life, a portrait of himself that he has in his home rots and decays, revealing his sin and corruption. The painting itself is filled with detail, and to fully understand and appreciate these detailed allusions, it would be important to be familiar with Wilde’s work. For each sin that Dorian Gray commits in the novel, is represented in the painting in some form of decay. There is a cat that appears next to Gray in the painting as well, and I can assume that this too is a literary reference and would have much more meaning if I had read the book. Of the research that I have done, it is very helpful to learn about why the artist made this piece. As I stated earlier, it was for a film version of the novel, and as I read more about the film I learn a lot about the artist and this specific work of art.