THROUGH THE EYES OF MARGARET KEANE

One of my blogger friends, Lady Caer Morganna, recently wrote a post on her blog For the Love of Cats that intrigued me. It was about one of her favorite artists, Puerto Rican-born Cyra R. Cancel, who creates fantasy cat art. Cancel's lovely paintings of wide-eyed cats suddenly reminded me of the wide-eyed Keane paintings.

Cyra R. Cancel    (link)  

The unique and intriguing Keane paintings of children and animals were immensely popular in the 1960s. When I was about twelve or thirteen I had four Keane cat posters hanging in my bedroom.

At that time, it was universally assumed that the paintings were done by an artist named Walter Keane.
It wasn't until many years later that I did some research and learned the truth.

Walter Keane never painted the pictures. They were all created by his wife Margaret. The story is long and intricate, but I'll try to condense.

Peggy Hawkins (Margaret's birth-name) was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1927. A botched mastoid operation damaged one of her eardrums and left her partially deaf. She became fascinated with painting at an early age. She attended classes at the Watkins Institute in Nashville and later studied art at the Traphaugen School of Design in New York City. By the mid-1950s she began a career as a portrait painter.

Her first marriage to Frank Ulbrich produced a daughter but ended in divorce. In 1955 Margaret became smitten by a suave, charming real estate agent named Walter Keane. They were quickly married in Honolulu.

It wasn't long before Walter began taking an uncanny interest in Margaret's paintings. He eventually abandoned real estate and began promoting, exhibiting, and selling his wife's paintings throughout the United States.

There was one major issue that Margaret initially knew nothing about: 
Her husband was promoting her paintings as his own. According to him, the artist was Walter Keane.

At that time in her life, Margaret was timid and withdrawn. When she finally discovered what her husband was doing, she remained silent due to his bullying and constant threats.

She finally divorced Walter in 1964 and eventually summoned the courage to go on a radio show and announce that she was the real creator of the paintings.

A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner arranged a public "paint-out" between Margaret and Walter in Union Square.
Walter never showed up.

In 1982 Margaret Keane sued Walter and USA Today in federal court for an article claiming that Walter was the real artist.

The judge ordered Margaret and Walter to create a painting in the courtroom to determine who was the real artist. 

Walter declined, claiming he had a sore shoulder. Margaret produced an impressive painting in less than an hour. She won the case and was awarded four million dollars.

Margaret never got the money, but stated that all she really wanted was to establish the fact that she was the real artist ( a federal appeals court upheld the defamation verdict but overturned the $4 million damage award).

Margaret Keane is still alive and painting today at age 94. She lives in Napa County, California with her daughter and son-in-law.

Keane's paintings reached a peak of popularity in the 1960s. At that time her artistic output consisted mostly of children and animals with the trademark uncanny wide eyes. 
Unique, mesmerizing, mysterious - - sometimes almost creepy. 
Margaret eventually expanded her artistic repertoire and minimized the ubiquitous hypnotic eyes in her portraits.
Her work is still popular, especially with collectors.

Margaret Keane

 

This is one of the cat posters I used to have. Don't know whatever happened to it.

 Numerous celebrities commissioned Keane to paint their portraits. This is one she did of Joan Crawford.

Margaret Keane in later years