They just seemed so innocent and searching. They were dressed as harlequins and ballerinas. Some of the children held sad, big-eyed poodles in their arms. But a great number of others, who wanted something more melancholic, went for Walter’s sad, big-eyed children. Some of them – those who wanted their homes to express upbeat whimsy – opted for paintings of dogs playing pool or dogs playing poker. The American suburb had just been invented and millions of people suddenly had a lot of wall space to fill. Here my life as a painter began in earnest.”įifteen years later and Keane was an art sensation. As he would later write: “As if goaded by a kind of frantic despair, I sketched these dirty, ragged little victims of the war with their bruised, lacerated minds and bodies, their matted hair and runny noses. And there he was, staring heartbroken at the big-eyed children fighting over scraps of food in the rubbish.
#Margaret keane self portrait how to#
A young American named Walter Keane was in Europe to learn how to be a painter. “I really feel it.” She is the last person you’d expect to be a participant in one of the great art frauds of the 20th century. “Jehovah looks after me every day,” she says. She hands me Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets too. “Would you like some macadamia nuts?” she asks.
Sitting unobtrusively in the corner is 87-year-old Margaret Keane. A Siamese cat weaves in and out of my legs. Inside, a family of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses bustles around, offering me a cheese plate. T here’s a sweet, small suburban house in the vineyards of Napa, northern California.
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