Thomas Kinkade (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012)[1] was an American painter of popular realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company. He characterized himself as “Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light”, a phrase he protected through trademark but one originally attributed to the English master J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)[2] He also claimed to be “America’s most-collected living artist”.[3] Media Arts Group — the former publicly traded company that licensed, distributed and sold Kinkade’s products — claimed that 1 in 20 homes in the U.S. feature some form of Thomas Kinkade’s art.
