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December 14th, 2020 
Awake Goy 
Thomas Kennington was an artist who, in spite of being a very high profile painter (judging by the outstanding portraits he created), dedicated many of his works to serious social problems which beset the England of his time during the Victorian Era. This sort of approach to social-themed subjects was (and is) known as social realism. To be perfectly honest this was the decisive factor which motivated me to cover the artist in question, particularly in connection with one of his paintings, which by the way I consider his masterpiece, that is his painting entitled Homeless (1890). About the sheer drama displayed in such work of art people might argue that “it is just a painting” or “it should not be taken so literary”, but one begs to differ when confronted with the historical background related to the picture itself.
Whatever the case might be Homeless is one of those works of art that makes one stop to ponder, especially in these days of so much anti-White propaganda in which certain “people” believe themselves “virtuous” by mudslinging white folks with terms such as “White Privilege” with little to no historical basis to justify such obvious psychological attacks. Regardless I do not think that I need to mention which (((tribe))) is behind this promotion of hatred against White folks anyway (just in case someone wishes to remind me about it in the comments’ section).
Thomas Benjamin Kennington was born on 7 April 1856 in Grimsby in Lincolnshire and trained in art at the Liverpool School of Art (winning a gold medal), the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau (a remarkable artist which I covered in depth a couple of years ago) and Tony Robert-Fleury. He later moved to Chelsea in London where he painted the aforementioned work in question. He enjoyed a successful career there as a painter in oils and watercolours, winning a reputation as a portraitist and genre painter. In 1892 Homeless was sent to Melbourne for the large Anglo-German exhibition which was held in Melbourne’s exhibition centre. The painting is now housed in the Bendigo Art Gallery in Australia.
“Thomas Kennington lived at a time when there were a large number of families living on the “bread line”; a term used denoting the poorest condition in which it is acceptable to live, with some even dying of starvation on the city streets. The population of Great Britain increased three-fold during the nineteenth century due to many factors, such as an influx of people from Ireland who were escaping the potato famine… Jobs were hard to find in the countryside so folks had flocked to the urbanized areas seeking work… In the middle of the nineteenth century it was estimated that there were more than thirty thousand homeless children living on the streets of London.” – Excerpt taken from Thomas Benjamin Kennington’s entry by my daily art display.
Thomas Kennington exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1880, and in 1886 achieved prominence as a founding member and first Secretary of the New English Art Club. Members of this group chose their own paintings for their exhibitions, which were originally held at the Egyptian House in Piccadilly, and reflected developments in Paris – notably Impressionism. According to one account:
Kennington was best known in the early part of his career for his social realist subjects executed in a French-style, with square brushwork and a muted tonal range. In Victorian painting, the theme of family life featured strongly and lessons were to be drawn from art works. They were visual puzzles to be worked out. Domestic scenes provided models of how adults and children should behave. Some of Kennington’s work took the genre of “pathetic realism” to a level not achieved by his predecessors and frankly, can be considered harrowing. – Excerpt taken from Thomas Benjamin Kennington’s Biography at The Victorian Web.
Kennington’s best-known work is probably Orphans (1885), which is in the Tate in London, but others such as Widowed and Fatherless (1888), The Pinch of Poverty (1889) and Homeless (1890) are also well known. He was commissioned by benefactors to produce a series of such works to promote their charitable causes, but there was an artistic source as well: in the choice of subject and the “rich colouring, smooth handling of paint, and subject” of such paintings he is felt to have been inspired by the seventeenth-century Spanish artist, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.
Kennington himself was an inspiration to others, as a member of the St John’s Wood clique, a group of artists in that part of London who were interested in history painting and particularly in “imaginary situations that captured the mood of bygone times” – often including children. He also taught at the St John’s Wood Art School during the mid-1890s. He later became a founding member of the advisory body called the Imperial Arts League, set up in 1909, which would become known as the Artists’ League of Great Britain.
Kennington died in London on 10 December 1916, about ten years after his Swedish wife, Elise Nilla Lindahl Steveni (1861-1895). His fame would be eclipsed by the younger of their two sons, the artist and sculptor Eric Henri Kennington (1888-1960).
Sources: The Victorian Web, My Daily Art Display, artnet, wikipedia, and Art UK.
A personal note to readers
This is going to be my last post in this annus horribilis 2020, from this point on I am going to be quite busy relocating to another place as it has become impossible for me to keep on renting anything anymore (sort of like the subjects in the Homeless painting to a lesser degree) so I will not be able to post another article for quite a few weeks at least.
I am not going to wish a “happy new year” to anyone since we all know, too damn well, what is in store for us in 2021 as the so-called UN has made it quite clear recently. In spite of that I sincerely wish everyone a merry Yule and a happy Winter Solstice observance. Taking into account that this cosmic event is going to be coupled with an unusual Jupiter-Saturn conjunction this year’s Winter solstice is going to be very special. I hope that whatever that might bring is going to be for the better.
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