KANE, JOHN

born Aug. 19, 1860, West Calder, Scot. died Aug. 10, 1934, Pittsburgh original name John Cain Scottish-born U.S. artist who painted primitivist scenes of Pittsburgh and memories of Scotland. John Cain emigrated to the United States (where a banker's misspelling changed his name to Kane) in 1879 after working in a coal mine since childhood. He was a steelworker, gandy dancer (railroad man who stamps gravel between the ties), street paver, house painter, carpenter, and amateur boxer. After losing a leg in a railroad accident, he became a watchman and a boxcar painter. For his own pleasure he would paint landscapes on boxcars at lunchtime, covering them over with regulation flat paint in the afternoon. He wandered away from home after the death of an infant son and began to paint on beaver board landscapes of the Pennsylvania countryside and cityscapes of Pittsburgh. His works were discovered in 1927, when one of his pictures was accepted for the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh. He won a prize two years later, and museums began seeking his works. His autobiography, Sky Hooks, was published posthumously (1938). An intense self-portrait (1929; Museum of Modern Art, New York City) is his best known work.