Thomas Kinkade

William Thomas Kinkade III (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, pastoral, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for achieving ability during his lifetime in the same way as the accrual marketing of his action as printed reproductions and supplementary licensed products by means of the Thomas Kinkade Company. According to Kinkade's company, one in all twenty American homes owned a copy of one of his paintings.

Kinkade described himself as a "Painter of Light", a phrase he protected by trademark, but which was earlier used to describe the English player J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851).

Kinkade was criticized for some of his tricks and event practices; art critics faulted his act out for being "kitsch". Kinkade died of "acute intoxication" from alcohol and the drug diazepam at the age of 54.