Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927) is an American artist. Creator of the "big-eyed waifs," Keane is famous for drawing paintings with big eyes. She mainly paints women, children and animals in oil or mixed media. While the work achieved commercial success through inexpensive reproductions on prints, plates and cups, it has been critically dismissed as kitsch. One reviewer pointed to its ubiquity in discount stores: "They hung in Woolworth's, next to the velvet Elvis, or maybe it was Walgreen's, by the clowns.
The work was originally attributed to Keane's husband, Walter Keane. After their divorce in the 1960s, Margaret soon claimed credit, which was established after an in-court "paint-off" in Hawaii.
Video made from gallery (Keane Eyes Gallery, San Francisco, CA)
Music:
An Imaginative Walk Through the Forest by Walruuse Music is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927) is an American artist. Creator of the "big-eyed waifs," Keane is famous for drawing paintings with big eyes. She mainly paints women, children and animals in oil or mixed media. While the work achieved commercial success through inexpensive reproductions on prints, plates and cups, it has been critically dismissed as kitsch. One reviewer pointed to its ubiquity in discount stores: "They hung in Woolworth's, next to the velvet Elvis, or maybe it was Walgreen's, by the clowns.
The work was originally attributed to Keane's husband, Walter Keane. After their divorce in the 1960s, Margaret soon claimed credit, which was established after an in-court "paint-off" in Hawaii.
Video made from gallery (Keane Eyes Gallery, San Francisco, CA)
Music:
An Imaginative Walk Through the Forest by Walruuse Music is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
