Walter keane biography, life & interesting facts revealed

Walter Keane, a flamboyant s and '60s North Beach artist best known for portraits of sad, doe-eyed children that became a worldwide sensation, died Dec. He was The creative authorship of the famous "Keane" pictures, which started out depicting big-eyed waifs and runaways but later graduated to big-eyed dogs, giraffes, geishas and grown adults, was the subject of a decades-long controversy.

Margaret keane net worth

Both Mr. Keane and his second wife, Margaret Keane, also a San Francisco painter, claimed to be the creator. The stakes were high: millions of dollars in copyright fees. By the mid- s, Keane pictures were among the best-loved art in the world, despite being derided by many critics as kitsch. The dispute came to a climax in a lawsuit, when a federal judge in Honolulu ordered both Walter and Margaret Keane to paint pictures for the jury.

Margaret produced a likeness of a big-eyed child in 54 minutes.

Walter keane net worth

Keane declined to paint, saying he had a sore shoulder. There was also a scheduled Union Square "paint-off" in , covered in Life magazine, where Margaret again produced a painting but Walter failed to attend. Herb Caen, who knew Mr. Keane from his North Beach days, concluded in a column that Margaret Keane was the real painter. Until the end, though, Mr.

Keane insisted he was the creator of the big- eyed children. In , he told The Chronicle, "I painted the waifs of the world. Keane was born Oct.