The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton is a painting created in 1900 by the American artist Thomas Eakins. The oil on canvas painting depicts a full-length image of a middle-aged man, who was Eakins’s brother-in-law, in a black suit with white shirt, black shoes, and gold wire glasses. Louis Kenton stands with his hands in his pockets looking as if deep in thought while staring down at the floor.
The painting measures H: 82 in. (208.3 cm.), W: 42 in. (106.7 cm.) and can be found on view at The Met Fifth Avenue Gallery 771. Despite being a background figure in the 1898 Salutat painting, Eakins made Kenton the focal point of this remarkable masterpiece for which he posed.
Louis Kenton was born to a flour and grain salesman from Philadelphia and worked as a bookkeeper and clerk between 1889 and 1891 according to city directories records. He married Elizabeth Macdowell, Susan Eakins’s sister’s later that year. Today, The Thinker remains one of Eakin’s most enduring paintings due to its striking composition reminiscent of famous Western artists such as Manet’s Olympia or Velazquez’ Las Meninas beyond its art historical significance within his oeuvre catalogue.Ciudad de México
