Joseph Wallace King, known as Vinciata, American (1911 – 1996)

Joseph Wallace King was born in 1911, at Leatherwood Plantation in Horsepasture, Virginia.

He studied at Catholic University and at The Corcoran Institute in Washington, DC. Joseph was a true renaissance man, he was an artist, an art collector, an actor, a philanthropist, and a politician. As a professional artist he was accomplished in both portraiture and landscape painting. He often signed his paintings with the pseudonym “Vinciata.” He was commissioned to paint portraits of many well known persons including Queen Elizabeth, Richard Nixon, and members of the Saudi royal family.

Joseph Wallace King served in the State House of Representatives from 1950 to 1952. He employed some rather unusual tactics to gain attention for his causes. He hired a woman to re-create (in a flesh-colored bodysuit) Lady Godiva’s nude horseback ride in order to protest a proposed property tax increase in Winston-Salem.

The art of “Vinciata” is or has been exhibited in galleries including Bernheim-Jeune Dauberville Gallery in Paris, in France; Hammer Galleries in New York City, NY; Harris & Ewing Studio in Washington, DC; Laster’s Fine Art & Antiques in Winston-Salem, NC; and PJG & Associates Fine Art in Leasburg, MO.