Margaret Keane -Portrait of a Girl & Cat With Big Eyes -1967 Oil Painting

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Margaret Keane -Portrait of a Girl & Cat with Big Eyes -1967 Oil painting

Mid century modern Expressionist - Oil … Read more Margaret Keane -Portrait of a Girl & Cat with Big Eyes -1967 Oil painting

Mid century modern Expressionist - Oil painting on board - signed and dated
board size 9x5- Frame size 17x13"

Artist Biography
Margaret (Hawkins) Keane (1927 - 2022) was active and lived in California, Tennessee.She is known for Modernist sad child figure painting, portraiture.Margaret Keane (born 1927) is an American artist. She is an illustrator and painter, and mainly draws women and children in oil or mixed media. Her works are instantly recognizable (although often imitated) from the doe-eyed children that are depicted in the drawings.Margaret D. H. Keane was born 1927 in Tennessee, and attributes her deep respect for the Bible and inspirations of her artwork to the relationship with her grandmother. She later became one of Jehovah's Witnesses, which she said changed her life for the better.In the 1960s, Margaret Keane's artwork was sold under the name of her husband, Walter Keane. He locked her in a room and forced her to paint,while taking credit for her work. Conflict over that issue was cited as one of the reasons they divorced. Neither wanting to relinquish rights to the artwork, Walter and Margaret's divorce proceedings went all the way to federal court. At the hearing, Margaret created a painting in front of the judge to prove that she was the artist. Walter declined to paint before the court, citing a sore shoulder. In 1986, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.Her works while living in her husband's shadow tended to depict sad children in a dark setting, but after divorcing, moving to Hawaii, and becoming one of Jehovah's Witnesses, her paintings took on a happier, brighter style. Her website now advertises her work as having "tears of joy" or "tears of happiness".Keane is a fixture in popular culture. Some of her well-known fans over the years have included actresses Joan Crawford and Natalie Wood, whom she painted portraits of; filmmaker Tim Burton, who commissioned Keane to paint Lisa Marie; and animator Craig McCracken, whose characters the Powerpuff Girls are based on Keane's 'waifs'; additionally the Girls' schoolteacher is named "Ms. Keane".Currently Margaret makes her home in Napa County, California. She was portrayed by Amy Adams in the Tim Burton film Big Eyes. See less