Kennington was born in Grimsby and trained at the
Liverpool School of Art, the Royal College of Art,
and the Academie Julien in Paris. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1880, and also regularly showed his work at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Grosvenor Gallery.
He was a founder member and first secretary of the New English Art Club from 1886 and founded the Imperial Arts League in 1909.
Kennington was known as a genre painter who moved from idealised scenes to more socially motivated realism. This exceptionally rare landscape is inscribed to verso and was kept in the family handed down to his son, artist Eric Kennington - himself a noted artist being one of the first war artists & illustrated T.E.Lawrence's 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' and then to his son Christopher and wife Elizabeth.
Thomas Kennington is represented in the Tate Collection.