Peter Samuelson (1912-1996) was born in Wiltshire and grew up in Kent. He went to Eton and then enrolled at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts in Paris. He moved with his Dutch wife to Netherland, where he worked mainly as an illustrator. On return to England following a divorce in 1947, he helped his stepmother run a boarding house in Torquay. It was the lodgers at this and also his own house in London that became subjects of his paintings. Samuelson was not interested in having his art exhibited; he tended to gift his paintings to friends and models. He became better known following exhibitions organised by his friends. He also became an expert and restorer of rugs. He spent his final years with his daughter in an Oxfordshire village where he died.