Kenneth King Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1939 -

Kenneth King, born in Dublin, Ireland in 1939, is a marine artist who was a Chaplain in the Royal Navy before he became a full-time artist.[1] King's studio, "Straid Studio-Gallery", is in Glencolmcille, a Gaeltacht or Irish language speaking region in County Donegal, Ireland.
Kenneth King, 2009, outside Straid Studio-Gallery

King's father was Richard King, best known for his designs of Irish postage stamps[2] and his work in stained glass.

King specialises in depicting the naval and merchant shipping of Ireland, as well as seascapes of the country's coastline and lighthouses. He has been commissioned by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Irish Shipping, An Post, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Maritime Institute of Ireland and the Office of Public Works.

The National Maritime Museum of Ireland has paintings, by Kenneth King, of all the Irish ships lost during World War II. Irish Shipping had commissioned King to paint pictures of all their ships. When Irish Shipping was liquidated, the receiver sold the collection at auction. The Maritime Institute of Ireland acquired some of the paintings; they concentrated on ships lost during World War II. Later, at the instigation of Des Brannigan, then President of the Institution, the Institute commissioned King to paint pictures of the other Irish Ships lost during the war. This collection is on display in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland. The collection lacks one image: the Naomh Garbhan which hit a mine off the Waterford coast and sank with the loss of three lives on 2 May 1945





orn in Dublin, Kenneth King was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a Chaplain and served in the Arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East waters. He began painting full-time in 1976, specialising in the naval and merchant shipping of Ireland, together with the country' coastline and lighthouses.

His work has been commissioned by State and Private sector shipping interests, by the R.N.L.I., An Post, B.I.M., and the Office of Public Works. His works are also to be found in the collections of the Irish Navy, the Marine Institute, Shannon Estuary Ports, Killybegs?Fishermen' Organisation and the Maritime Institute of Ireland as well as in numerous private collections both at home and abroad.


Having exhibited annually at the Wexford Festival Opera for many years and at the Art Fair each November in the RDS since 2001, he now confines himself to exhibiting his work throughout the year at his studio-gallery.


Married with a family, Kenneth King lives and works in Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal, not far from the premier fishing port of Killybegs. From an artistic background, his father was the late Richard J. King, Stained-glass artist and Designer. He is a member of the Maritime Institute of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland. He also directed the Oideas Gael School of Marine Painting in Glencolmcille for many years.