#Margaret keane self portrait movie#
#Margaret keane self portrait full#

Walter encouraged Margaret to develop a style beyond realism, educating and immersing her in the works of old masters for inspiration. I witnessed the evolution of their artistic process. Her daughter Jane moved in, and she and Margaret learned to paint under my father’s tutelage. Later, Mrs Ulbrich filed for a divorce from her husband Frank, and swiftly married my father in 1955. Soon, Mrs Ulbrich moved in with my father, and he took her on as his “Eliza Doolittle” and artistic apprentice. I observed my father’s friendship with Berkeley painter Robert Watson to be a profound influence on both my own and Walter’s evolving style, as he shifted his early focus from street scenes and nudes, to ominous ethereal imagery of exaggerated perspective.Īfter my parents filed for divorce in 1953, my father and I met Peggy (Margaret Doris Hawkins Ulbrich), during an exhibition of Walter’s paintings.Īt that time, Mrs Ulbrich, a former New York baby furniture factory worker, made her living painting names on neckties, in cooperation with her husband Frank, supplemented by quick realistic portrait sketches of passers by at street fairs.

#Margaret keane self portrait full#

In 1950 my mother Barbara became department head of dress design at UC Berkeley, while Walter painted full time.

Adorned in an ornately illustrated box, accompanied by a book and language record set, these sold in San Francisco, New York and London, at high end department and toy stores including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, I Magnin and FAO Schwartz, as seen in this 1951 edition of UK’s House & Garden magazine. Initially speaking an amalgamation of 5 languages, I learned to draw and paint alongside my father from an early age.ĭuring 1949, in the ballroom of our Berkeley mansion “Elmwood House”, I watched my parents create, “Susie Keane’s Puppeteens”, “big eyed” wooden puppets, hand painted by Walter, with clothing designed and sewn by Barbara. Of course, the most damning evidence against Walter, that he pleaded a shoulder injury during a court case when a judge asked both Keanes to paint a Big Eye to settle the case, is corroborated by news accounts.ġ947, I am Susan Keane, daughter of Barbara and Walter Keane.įollowing the traumatic death of my brother Stanley, and a highly successful joint venture in real estate, throughout the late 40s and early 50s, my parents and I lived in post WW2 Europe, while maintaining a home in Berkeley, California, designed by Julia Morgan, built in 1906.ĭuring that time, my mother, in pursuit of a PhD, studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, fashion design with couturiers including Edwar Sene, and Universität Heidelberg, while my father studied painting at École des Beaux-Arts and L’Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris. You can read her verbose press release below, but the gist of it is, she says, unlike the way it’s portrayed in the film, her father was the “ideas man” behind the paintings, who came up with the concept before he’d even met Margaret, even if Margaret did do the bulk of the actual painting. She may not like the movie, but she must be thrilled about her choice of URL. Turns out the invite misprinted the official site () and sent me to one run by Susan Hale Keane, Walter’s daughter from a previous marriage. We are here to dispel the myths perpetuated by the media.

All of our communications to date have gone unanswered.

#Margaret keane self portrait movie#

When I was searching for an official image to accompany my review (you can read that tomorrow, I’m still embargoed), I went to official website listed on my screening invite,, and instead of finding a movie site, saw instead a series of spoilery “myths” supposedly perpetuated by the film beneath a mission statement of sorts:ĭespite our best efforts, the Keane Family has been unsuccessful in opening a dialogue with the creators of the film “Big Eyes”. At least, that’s the version we get in the movie, which may be somewhat affected by the fact that Margaret is still alive to tell her story, whereas Walter died in 2000. Tim Burton’s Big Eyes tells the story of artist Margaret Keane and her husband Walter, the latter of whom who, so the story goes, took credit for her paintings of saucer-eyed children and became a kitsch art celebrity.