An instructor at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC from 1921 to 1935 and painter of portraits, still life, cityscape, and interiors with figures, Samuel Baker was born in Boston. He studied with Ernest Major and Charles Davis in Mystic, Connecticut, and Edward Barnard in Belmont, Massachusetts.

In 1910, he opened a studio in Boston and eventually moved into the Fenway Studio Building occupied by leading artists of the city including Edmund Tarbell. In 1910, he had an exhibition of his portraits at the Copley Gallery in Boston, and this brought him much public attention. Portrait commissions followed including faculty of Harvard University, and government figures from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 1921, he painted a portrait of fellow Boston artist Gertrude Nason, Interior with Figure, which won a silver medal that same year at the Corcoran's Biennial Exhibition.

In 1921, he moved to Washington DC, having accepted a teaching position offered by principal Edmund Tarbell at the Corcoran School of Art. Baker remained in this position until his retirement in 1935. He also taught at Georgetown University.

Memberships included the Arts Club of Washington, the Society of Washington Artists, Landscape Club of Washington, Salmagundi Club of New York City, and Guild of Boston Artists.

Among his exhibition venues were the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC.

Baker's paintings are in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, the Lincoln Center Collection and the National Academy of Design in New York City, and the Worcester Historical Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Sources:
David B. Dearinger, Painting and Sculpture in the Collection of The National Academy of Design, p. 22
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
Jessica Oppenheim, Granddaughter of the artist