JANET WENSLEY KIMBERLING American, 1925–2022 Autumn Farmstead, 1971 Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Framed. 28 x 33 inches (excluding frame) $130-250
ARTIST PROFILE: Janet Wensley Kimberling (1925–2022) was an American "romantic realist" painter and architectural illustrator known for her technical mastery of landscapes and ancient architecture. Born in New Rochelle, New York, she demonstrated early talent, exhibiting at Rockefeller Center at age eleven, and later graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University. Before transitioning to a full-time painting career in 1967, she worked for twelve years as an architectural illustrator in Chicago, a background that informed the precise structure and perspective of her later fine art. In 1975, she relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she became a prominent figure in the local art community, twice named "Poster Artist of the Year." Kimberling was celebrated for her traditional methods, often grinding her own pigments and preparing her own canvases in the style of the Old Masters, and she insisted on painting from life or detailed sketches rather than photographs. Her extensive body of work, featuring subjects ranging from European villages to Southwestern adobes, is represented in the Midwest Museum of American Art and numerous private collections worldwide.
