Peggy Doris Hawkins was born September 15, 1927 in Nashville, Tennessee. When she was two, her eardrum was permanently damaged during a mastoid operation. Unable to hear properly, she learned to watch the eyes of the person talking to her to understand them. Keane started drawing as a child, and at age 10 she took classes at the Watkins Institute in Nashville. Keane painted her first oil painting of two little girls, one crying and one laughing, when she was 10 years old and gave the painting to her grandmother. At age 18 she attended the Traphagen School Of Design in New York City for a year. She began work painting clothing and baby cribs in the 1950s until she finally began a career painting portraits. Early on, Margaret began experimenting in kitsch. She worked in both acrylic and oil-based paints, with the subject of her artwork limited to women, children and familiar animals (cats, dogs, horses).
Some time in the mid-1950s, Margaret, married with a child, met Walter Keane. Margaret found him "suave, gregarious and charming." The two married in 1955 in Honolulu. Margaret has said that he began selling her characteristic "big eyes" paintings immediately, but unknown to her, claimed it was his own work. When she discovered his deception, she remained silent. She later explained her behavior: "I was afraid of him because he [threatened] to have me done in if I said anything." But Margaret even publicly acknowledged him as the artist, while later claiming it was "tortuous" for her. She rationalized the situation on the ground that "[a]t least they were being shown."
In 1970, Margaret Keane announced on a radio broadcast she was the real creator of the paintings. In 1986, she sued both Walter and USA Today in federal court for an article claiming Walter was the real artist. At the trial, the judge famously ordered both Margaret and Walter to each create, a big-eyed painting in the courtroom, to determine who was telling the truth. Walter declined, citing a sore shoulder, whereas Margaret completed her painting in 53 minutes. After the verdict Margaret Keane said "I really feel that justice has triumphed. It's been worth it, even if I don't see any of that four million dollars." The artworks Margaret Keane created while living in the shadow of her husband tended to depict sad-looking children in dark settings. After she left Walter, moved to Hawaii and, after years of following astrology, palmistry, handwriting analysis and transcendental meditation, became a Jehovah's Witness, her work took on a happier, brighter style. "The eyes I draw on my children are an expression of my own deepest feelings. Eyes are windows of the soul," Keane explains.
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