Ken Marschall

Ken Marschall (born October 28, 1950) is an American self-taught painter, illustrator, and visual effects artist who is globally recognized as the world's leading Titanic artist. His career began in 1969 at age 18 with his first commission to illustrate the Titanic — the start of more than five decades of paintings that capture the ship's architecture, interiors, and sinking with breathtaking precision.

Marschall's photo-realistic paintings have appeared on the covers of Time, Life, and National Geographic, and are held in the collections of historian Walter Lord, astronaut Neil Armstrong, ocean explorer Robert Ballard, filmmaker James Cameron, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.

In 1992, he co-authored Titanic: An Illustrated History with Don Lynch — a New York Times bestseller that later served as the visual blueprint for James Cameron's 1997 film. Marschall served as the film's visual consultant, and his historical accuracy in rendering the ship's design directly influenced the production's authentic portrayal, contributing to its record-tying 11 Academy Awards.

Marschall has completed six dives to the Titanic wreck site in submersibles, and served as consultant to Cameron's documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, the A&E specials Death of a Dream and The Legend Lives On, and the Discovery Channel's Last Mysteries of the Titanic. His work remains the definitive visual record of a ship that no camera ever truly captured.