Continuing his studies at the University of Regina, he received a Master of Arts degree in 1986 upon completing a thesis on the poet T. S. Eliot.
Brunelleschi's Dome marked King's transition from novelist to writer of art histories and biographies.
King's next book, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006), was met by much critical acclaim and considerable commercial success.
[2] In 2017, he won the RBC Taylor Prize for his book Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies.
[4] He lectures frequently in both Europe and North America, and has given guided tours of Florence Cathedral and of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.