Walter Keane

Uncommon card · No. 127593

Walter Stanley Keane (October 7, 1915 – December 27, 2000) 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 then-wife, Margaret Keane. Walter and Margaret had married in 1955, where Walter soon became jealous of Margaret's artwork. He soon began claiming her artwork as his, making her work 16 hours a day to provide art that he would present as his own. Per Margaret: "When he wasn’t home he’d usually call every hour to make sure I hadn’t gone out [...] I was in jail." The money acquired from this artwork went to Walter instead of Margaret, and he lived extravagantly while she was left unrecognized. Even when she offered to teach him how to paint it himself, he failed to be able to do so. Margaret felt trapped in this relationship and felt she needed to stay to support herself and her daughter. In the meantime...

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