"Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade died of accidental acute intoxication from alcohol and an anti-anxiety medication, according to autopsy report made public on Monday by local NBC Bay Area TV.

The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office reported Kinkade's cause of death as "acute ethanol and Diazepam intoxication" and manner of death as "accident," according to the NBC station. Diazepam is the active ingredient in Valium.

A Santa Clara County Coroner's investigator confirmed to Reuters that the autopsy report on Kinkade had been completed but said he could not release it after business hours.

Kinkade, the self-proclaimed "Painter of Light," whose works captivated millions of Americans despite the scorn of many art critics, died in April at his home in Northern California at the age of 54.

His brother told the San Jose Mercury News newspaper that the painter had battled alcoholism for several years and suffered a relapse before he died.

Patrick Kinkade said his brother had been burdened in recent years by a separation from his wife, financial troubles and the low opinion of his work by critics.

Thomas Kinkade was arrested for drunk driving in 2010, the same year his company filed for bankruptcy. Art galleries reported a surge in sales of Kinkade's paintings following his death.

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Gene Blythe / AP file

Thomas Kinkade in 2006.

The cause of painter Thomas Kinkade's April 6 death may not be known for months, but according to an emergency call placed that evening, he had been "drinking all night," and his brother says that the artist had relapsed into alcoholism.

"You can be doing real real well and suddenly, the bottle calls you and you fall off," Kinkade's brother Patrick, a professor at Texas Christian University, said of the artist's struggles.

The San Jose Mercury News reported last week that Kinkade's girlfriend, Amy Pinto, called for help after the painter, 54, had stopped breathing.

"Apparently he's been drinking all night and not moving," a fire-department dispatcher says in a recording made by firescan.net. (Listen to the audio from the call.)

Patrick Kinkade told the newspaper this brother had battled alcoholism for years, sobering up and then relapsing before his death. Although Thomas Kinkade's art was loved and purchased by millions, his work was also criticized -- the London Independent dubbed him the "king of kitsch." And his brother says he internalized and struggled with that reaction.

"As much as he said it didn't bother him, in his heart deep down inside it would sadden him that people would criticize so hatefully his work and his vision when people didn't understand him," Patrick Kinkade told the Mercury News.

Thomas Kinkade struggled with other issues as well. He was separated from his wife, and his company had filed for bankruptcy in 2010. According to a report in The Daily, local police had responded to calls from the painter's house and broken up fights between Kinkade and Pinto.

"He was awfully human," Patrick Kinkade told the Mercury News.

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Gene Blythe / AP file

Thomas Kinkade in 2006.

Although an autopsy was performed on painter Thomas Kinkade on Monday, the results may not be known for five months, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Although autopsy results are often held pending toxicology results, the paper reports that those tests may take a while "because of a backup at the county lab."

Kinkade was just 54, but early reports attributed his death to natural causes.

Kinkade's girlfriend, Amy Pinto, told the newspaper that the painter "died in his sleep, very happy, in the house he built, with the paintings he loved, and the woman he loved."

She said the two had been dating for a year and a half and that Kinkade and his wife Nanette, whose initials are engraved on Kinkade's reproductions, had been separated for two years. Nanette and the couple's teenage daughters were in Australia when Kinkade passed away on April 6, the paper reports.

Sales of Kinkade's works have reportedly boomed since his death. The Contra Costa Times reports that an original painting of Kinkade's sat unsold for years with a $110,000 price tag. Ater Kinkade's death, the owner raised the price to $150,000, and it it sold in just hours.

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Bennett Raglin / WireImage

Artist Thomas Kinkade in 2007.

A California coroner is due to conduct an autopsy of Thomas Kinkade on Monday, three days after the famed American painter died unexpectedly, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Kinkade, whose luminescent, homespun scenes captivated millions even as critics scoffed, died alone at his home in Los Gatos in northern California of apparently natural causes, according to family spokesman David Satterfield. Kinkade was 54.

The Santa Clara County coroner will perform the autopsy. Officials have offered no further details on the case.
Kinkade claimed to be America's most collected living artist, his prints hanging in the homes of an estimated 10 million Americans. He was a Christian who often depicted scenes from the Bible, and his work expressed a wholesome idealism.

But a darker side to the artist surfaced in reports over the weekend by the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News, which cited problems with alcohol, including a 2010 DUI arrest, and fraud accusations by two gallery owners that ultimately cost Kinkade's company $860,000 in damages.

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