Charles Kinghan

"Hey! who took my Drake Cake" - Vintage Advertisement - Original Illustration

1930s

Charles Ross Kinghan (American, 1895-1984) was born in Anthony, KS on January 18, 1895. A teacher, he moved to Wichita as a teenager and did sign painting for the Western Sign Works. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art in 1916, the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the Audubon School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a pupil of Carl Scheffler, J. Wellington Reynolds, and H.A. Oberteuffer. He taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He was an illustrator for McCalls, Good Housekeeping, Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, and many other magazines. including American Artist magazine. He was author and illustrator of Rendering Techniques for Commercial Art and Advertising (1956) and of Ted Kautzky—Master of Pencil and Watercolor (1959). Head of the art department at BBDO Advertising Agency in New Rochelle, NY in 1962. One of the founders of the Huguenot School of Art in New Rochelle, NY. Retired in 1962 and moved to Laguna Beach, CA in 1973. Member: Assoc. of the National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society; Salmagundi Club; Philadelphia Water Color Club; Hudson Valley Art Assoc.; New Rochelle Art Assoc.; Allied Artists of America. Exhibitions: American Watercolor Society, 1949-56, 1959; Frye Museum of Art, Seattle, WA, 1955; one-man: Fort Worth, 1963; Dallas, 1964; Wichita Art Assoc., 1967, 1978. Awards: New Rochelle Art Assoc., 1945, 1946, 1948, 1969; Hudson Valley Art Assoc., 1951, 1964; Salmagundi Club, 1953, 1957; and many more. Collections: Mural at the New Rochelle, NY YMCA; Philadelphia Museum of Art; National Academy of Design; Smithsonian Institution; Emprise Bank Collection.