Walter Keane Quotes

Walter Stanley Keane was an American plagiarist who became famous in the 1960s as the claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable subjects with enormous eyes. The paintings are now accepted as having been painted by his wife, Margaret Keane. When she told her side of the story, Walter Keane retaliated with a USA Today article that again claimed he had done the work.

In 1986, Margaret Keane sued Walter and USA Today. In the subsequent slander suit, the judge demanded that the litigants paint a painting in the courtroom, but Walter declined, citing a sore shoulder. Margaret then produced a painting for the jurors in 53 minutes. The jury awarded her damages of $4 million. Wikipedia  

✵ 7. October 1915 – 27. December 2000
Walter Keane: 7   quotes 0   likes

Famous Walter Keane Quotes

“Let's face it, nobody could paint eyes like El Greco, and nobody can paint eyes like Walter Keane.”

Referring to himself in the third person, page 39. Cited also in " The lady behind those Keane-eyed kids https://books.google.com/books?id=2FMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56," LIFE 69, no. 21 (20 November 1970), p. 56; by Amy M. Spindler, " Style; An Eye for an Eye http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/23/magazine/style-an-eye-for-an-eye.html," The New York Times (23 May 1999); and by Jesse Hamlin, " Artist Margaret Keane hasn't lost wide-eyed enthusiasm for work http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Artist-Margaret-Keane-hasn-t-lost-wide-eyed-5955625.php," SFGate (14 Decembet 2014).
1965, Cited by Jane Howard

“We don't criticize them, so why criticize Walter Keane just because his symbol of humanity is a child?”

Referring to himself in the third person, page 39. "Them" refers to Rembrandt, El Greco, and Michelangelo.
1965, Cited by Jane Howard

“But it was a real nightmare when Walter threatened to kill me and our two daughters if we told anyone.”

Margaret Keane, Cited in "The lady behind those Keane-eyed kids"

“It takes dispassionate bravado to speak of oneself in the third person. Walter has such bravado: it is one of the chief reasons for his success.”

Jane Howard, " The Man Who Paints Those Big Eyes: The Phenomenal Success of Walter Keane https://books.google.com/books?id=WFMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA39," LIFE 59, no. 9 (27 August 1965), p. 39.
Jane Joward

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