Samuel Birch was born in Cheshire and was largely a self-taught artist. Despite a brief period of education at the Academie Colarossi in Paris in 1895, Birch practised his skills in Cornwall painting the beautiful Lamorna Cove. He changed his name on the suggestion of his fellow artist Stanhope Forbes due to another artist name with the name Birch painting in the same area at the time. Inspired by the Newlyn group of artists, Birch also set up a second group of artist based around Lamorna. He is said to have produced more than 20,000 pictures in his lifetime. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and participated in his first one man show at the Fine Art Society in 1906. Birch’s work holds colour and truth in his adaptions of the Cornish coast, and can now be found in the Penlee House Collection in Cornwall and in the collection of the Derby Art Gallery.