Margaret Keane: Big Eyes artist whose husband claims credit, dies aged 94
Written byTimes Magazine
Artist Margaret Keane, known for painting children with big sad eyes - and who had to prove in court that she created them after her husband initially took credit, has died.
Cane's charming portrait became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1986 she sued her ex-husband Walter and a judge ordered the two to paint in court to prove who the actual artist was. But, of course, he didn't - but he did, and he won.
The 94-year-old woman died peacefully at her home in Napa, California, on Sunday morning, according to a statement on social media.
His daughter, Jane Swigert, told the New York Times that the cause was heart failure. Keane's image of "Big-eyed Homeless" was rejected by art critics but was bought in bulk by audiences and celebrities.
She married Walter in 1955, who sold her work and forced her to work up to 16 hours a day from home.
"If he wasn't home, he used to call every hour to make sure I didn't go out," he told the Guardian in 2014. "I was in jail."
He didn't realize for the first two years that he passed on the pictures as his own.
"Everything snowballed, and it's too late to say he didn't paint it," he later told the New York Times. "I will always regret not being strong enough to stand up for my rights."
The couple divorced in 1965, and she didn't publicly reveal her affair until 1970. She challenged her ex-husband for a public "painting" in San Francisco, but he didn't come.
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