Kane, John

Kane, John (b West Calder, 19 Aug. 1860; d Pittsburgh, 10 Aug. 1934).
American naive painter, born in Scotland. He emigrated to the USA in 1879 and moved around a good deal, working at various labouring jobs. However, he considered Pittsburgh his home. In 1891 he lost a leg when he was struck by a train, but he became so agile with his artificial limb that few realized he was disabled. He took to drink after his son died soon after birth in 1904 and his wife consequently left him, taking their two daughters with her. Kane then led a wandering life, scraping a living by house painting and carpentry. His first oil paintings were done c.1910; he produced portraits—an intense self-portrait (1929, MoMA, New York) is his best-known work—landscapes, interiors, and cityscapes of industrial Pittsburgh, combining meticulous observation with naive stylization and imaginative reconstruction. In 1927 he achieved sudden fame, at the age of 67, when one of his paintings was accepted for the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh. Kane was the first American naive painter to achieve such recognition; some people thought his picture was a hoax, but in the remaining seven years of his life he achieved considerable acclaim and became something of a celebrity (in consequence of which he was reunited with his wife). His autobiography Sky Hooks (named after the supports of a house painter's scaffold) was posthumously published in 1938.