As a 20-year-old, his painting "Roman Boy", the first work he exhibited in his career, was awarded first prize in the Missouri Exhibition conducted at what was then known as the City Art Museum (now the St. Louis Art Museum). "Roman Boy" described as a provocative "sexually graphic work", alternatively "scandalized or energized" critics and the public, and earned the work a picture in "Life" magazine, earning him a degree of recognition that was unusual for an artist from St. Louis.