Robin, Portrait of Clifton Webb

Born Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck in Indianapolis, Indiana, Clifton Webb (1889-1966) was an Oscar-nominated actor, dancer and singer and one of Hollywood's most popular post-World War II movie stars. He and George Bellows were friends and fellow students at the New York School of Art, where Bellows enrolled in 1904. Webb was in his mid-fifties when he was cast in the 1944 movie Laura. His performance earned him wide acclaim and a long term contract with 20th Century Fox. “Webb was always stylishly dressed in public, and owned dozens of expensive suits—he was, in many ways, the America's first pop-culture "metrosexual," and he made it work for two decades.” (B. Eder, “Clifton Webb,” www.nytimes.com)

To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of George Bellows being prepared by Glenn C. Peck. An online version of the catalogue is available at www.hvallison.com.