It was the eyes that did it. [timid giggle] I liked the way he painted eyes and he liked mine. - Walter Stanley Keane

About Walter Stanley Keane

Walter Stanley Keane (7 October 1915–27 December 2000) was an American plagiarist who became famous in the 1960s as claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable waifs with enormous eyes. The paintings were in fact painted by his wife, Margaret Keane. When she made this fact public, Walter Keane retaliated with a USA Today article that again claimed he had done the work. In 1986, Margaret Keane sued Walter and USA Today; in the subsequent slander suit, the judge demanded that the litigants paint a painting in the courtroom, but Walter declined, citing a sore shoulder. Margaret then produced a painting for the jurors in fifty-three minutes and the jury awarded her damages of $4 million. The subject of Walter and Margaret Keane life together was depicted in the 2014 Tim Burton film Big Eyes.

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