Samuel Henry Baker [also known as S. H. Baker] was born in Birmingham, England on 13 May 1823 and studied at Birmingham Municipal School of Art. He started his artistic career as a painter of magic lantern slides. He subsequently worked as a landscape painter and painted numerous scenes of the Welsh countryside. Baker exhibited frequently at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. His work was also shown at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, New Gallery, Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. in London; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Manchester City Art Gallery; the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; and at the Royal Cambrian Academy in Conwy, Wales.