Thomas Benjamin Kennington (7 April 1856 – 10 December 1916) was a British genre, social realist and portrait painter.

[3] He was a founder member and first secretary of the New English Art Club (from 1886), and also founded the Imperial Arts League, whose stated purpose was to "protect and promote the interests of Artists and to inform, advise and assist...".

[2] Kennington became known not only for his idealised paintings of domestic and everyday-life scenes but also for his social realist works.

Paintings such as Orphans (1885, Tate, London), Widowed and fatherless (1885), Homeless (1890), and The pinch of poverty (1891), depicted the harsh realities of life for the poor in Britain in a manner that played on the onlooker's emotions.

It has been suggested that he may have been influenced by the Spanish painter Murillo (1618–1682), whose work also featured street children.