A black and white spaniel standing on a yellow silk damask covered day-bed in a sumptuous interior. 

Samuel John Carter was born in March 1835 at Swaffham, Norfolk, the son of Samuel Isaac Carter, a gamekeeper. As a child Carter took lessons from John Sell Cotman who ran a school of drawing in Swaffham.

Basing himself in London and Swaffham, Carter became established as an animal painter, including wildlife and hunting scenes, and was the principal animal illustrator for the Illustrated London News from 1867 to 1889. He also worked as an animal portrait painter in his Norfolk locale, including obtaining commissions to paint clients' horses and dogs. Exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy, he drew positive comment from John Ruskin. 

In 1858, at the age of 22, Carter married Martha Joyce (c. 1836–1920) at Swaffham. They had 11 children: ten sons and a daughter, with three sons dying in infancy. Most of the surviving children inherited their father's artistic talent with three, William, Verney and Amy, exhibiting at the Royal Academy. The youngest, Howard, became an archaeologist after gaining a reputation for his precise copying of Egyptian tomb decorations, later discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun.