page_title: The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton / Description
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del bufón Pablo de Valladolid († 1648), que estuvo al servicio de la Corte española.
context_page_description: The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton is an oil painting of 1900 by Thomas Eakins. The oil painting is a depiction of the artist's brother-in-law, Louis N. Kenton, and it has been called "one of Eakins's most memorable portraits". The painting is one of a series of life size standing male portraits painted late in Eakins's career.
context_section_description: Of Eakins's full-length portraits, the subject of The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton is the least well-known: "Among Eakins's scholars and thinkers, he may be the lone representative of the working class." The painting is the sparest in presentation; it has no discernible narrative, nor do the setting or costume provide overt dramatic potential. Kenton stands at the center of the composition, looking down and inward, his hands thrust in his pockets. His casual and introspective pose sets a tone consistent with many of Eakins's paintings of people, in that it references and subsequently rejects the conventions of aristocratic portraiture. With its contrast of the figure's dark silhouette and light, nondescript background, the painting suggests the influence of Velázquez.  For Eakins's biographer Lloyd Goodrich the similarities extend to the naturalistic verisimilitude and stylistic austerity of both artists' conceptions. Admiration for Velázquez's virtuosity and restrained palette, shared by contemporaries such as Manet, John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase, is moderated in The Thinker by Eakins's adherence to his academic training, particularly apparent in the precise details of anatomy and dress.
  Although the dark passages of Kenton's figure are broadly painted and the contours of the suit blurred to suggest atmosphere, details like his head, watch chain and shoes are depicted with careful attention to their three-dimensional quality. This contrast of technique may have been intended to emphasize the solidly sculptural presence of the head. Furthering this impression is the delicate coloring of Kenton's face, seen against the hard edge of his starched white collar.
  The portrait has been seen as subliminally autobiographical for its emphasis on intellectual solitude, and as a realization of Eakins's desire to construct a "modern, middle-class American life layered over the grand European tradition." Eakins's original title for the painting referred solely to the subject's name, emphasizing his individuality; it was only after the artist's death that The Thinker was added, in effect conferring a more abstracted and generic characterization to the painting, as with other of his large portraits like The Archaeologist and The Cello Player. The addition to the title derived from an inscription, most likely written by Mrs. Eakins, on the painting's stretcher, and may have been prompted by Kenton's estrangement from the Eakins family.
caption: Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid, 1636–37, Museo del Prado. Especially in terms of tone and color, Lloyd Goodrich noted similarities between Eakins's painting and Velázquez's portrait of a court jester.[6]
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