In the film, next to nobody is allowed in the Keane house for fear that they will discover Margaret’s studio and therefore the Keane secret. It was only later that Margaret discovered he had also stolen the Parisian street scenes that he had been peddling as his own when the two met at an art fair. He asked Margaret to teach him how to paint the big eyes, but he was unable to mimic her style. After Margaret first confronted him about peddling the big eye paintings as his own, he said that it would be confusing to correct his lie and that people would sue him.
It is true that Walter could not paint-but not for lack of effort. In the film, neither the audience nor Margaret ever see Walter put paintbrush to canvas in the film (except to sign his name on others’ work). Walter never tried to paint the big eyes himself The two sued each other in 1958, though it is unclear whether they reached an implicit agreement to do so for publicity as the movie suggests. Walter and Banducci did indeed fight: Banducci punched Keane for “using obscenity in the presence of a lady,” according to the Chronicle, and Keane was arrested for drunkenness. It wasn’t until over a year after he began this practice that Margaret visited the hungry i one night and discovered that Walter was taking credit for her work. Margaret, who was more shy than Walter, would paint at home while he sold her works in the club. The paintings first became popular after hanging in Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub on Jackson Street in San Francisco. Walter used a brawl with a night club owner to promote the paintings But hers are not so big and belong as unvaryingly to nubile girls as his belong to what appear to be war waifs.” (Later in the article, the reporter cites critics who say Margaret’s style is superior to Walter’s-even though we now know that all the paintings were by Margaret.)
The profile goes on to say: “Margaret, it is true, paints eyes a little like those for which her husband is famous. Walter did acknowledge that Margaret (Amy Adams), too, was a painter, but the paintings credited to her had slightly smaller almond-shaped eyes with a different style.
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