Esmerai Sanchez

Mrs. Angulo
AP English
6 October 2016
Scandal: Walter Keane

For years Walter Keane was known as one of the most commercially successful artist in
the 1960s for his paintings of waif-thin girls with eyes four times their normal size. The
paintings were very popular and even more so after he mass produced the paintings
from wall-sized posters to postcards but the truth was that he couldnt even paint. It was
his wife, Margaret
Keane, who was the
creator of the Big Eyed
children. The painting
became noticed when
they were hanged up in
a well-known bar.
Margaret, being really
timid and shy, rarely
went to the bar. It was
only two years after their
marriage that she found out that he was talking credit for her work. She kept the secret
because he had convinced her that her works would not sell if people knew that a
women was painting them. Then she was forced to keep the secret after Walter
threatened to kill her and her daughter if the truth every got out. Walter was very
unfaithful and always threatened her to keep painting but after a while she had divorced
him though she secretly kept painting for him. It was after she had had enough of the lie
that had burden her for a long time that she declared that she was the one who painted
the Big Eyes to a UPI reporter, 6 years after her divorce. Walter, of course, denied this
fact and when she challenged him to a paint-off in front of an audience he never
showed up. Later he declared that she was a boozing, sex-starved psychopath. Then
Margaret sued Walter and during the trial he self-examined himself. After the judge
asked both Margaret and Walter to paint a big eye picture to determine who was telling
the truth. Margaret completed her painting while Walter pleated a sore shoulder and
didnt paint anything. Margaret won the trial but didnt receive the 4 million dollars
because Walter was broke. It was a huge scandal because of how widely known this
type of paintings were. Many famous people bought them including Tim Burton who
directed a movie Big Eyes based off this scandal. Walter died alone and broke still
declaring that he was the true artists of the big eyed children.
For Walter I would obviously give him letter L for liar. However, I am stuck because I
believe that he was delirious. He convinced the whole world that he was the real painter
of the big eyes and he also convinced himself. He saw something that wasnt really
there. He saw a fame that really didnt belong to him. He was living in a world that he
didnt entirely earn. So in that sense the letter D is fitting as well. The picture is a
combination of both the letter L and the letter D.