Thomas Benjamin Kennington [also known as T. B. Kennington] was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England on 7 April 1856 and studied at Liverpool School of Art, the South Kensington Schools in London, and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He subsequently worked primarily as a genre and portrait painter. Kennington was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London from 1880 to 1916. He also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, Goupil Gallery, New English Art Club, New Gallery, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Suffolk Street Gallery, Royal Society of British Artists Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; Manchester City Art Gallery; Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.