Biography

(American, b. 1961)

Born in 1961 of French-Canadian heritage, Carl Joseph Samson began his serious study of art at age fourteen with Allan Banks in Sandusky, Ohio. Upon graduating high school, he moved to Boston and then Minneapolis, to train under two acknowledged realist masters of their time, Ives Gammell and Richard Lack. Next, Washington, D.C., and Europe became Carl's home as he researched and studied the old masters in some of the world's finest museums. Upon completing his studies, he returned to Ohio in 1986 and took up permanent residence in Cincinnati.

Carl is a repeat winner at the prestigious National Portrait Competition, seizing both the Grand Prize Sanden Award for Excellence in Portrait Painting and the Portrait Institute Award for Distinguished achievement in Portrait Painting. In 1996, he was one of five Americans invited to visit and work with the Union of Russian Artists in Moscow. In June of 2000, he lectured and demonstrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the American Society of Portrait Artists' Distinguished Guest of Honor. And in September of 2002, he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Governing Board of The American Society of Portrait Artists.

Samson's work has been the subject of numerous articles in a variety of media including American Artist, International Artist and The Artist's Magazine. In 2000, a video of his one-hour long Metropolitan Museum portrait demonstration was produced by the American Society of Portrait Artists Foundation. Samson's critical eye has been further recognized as juror of numerous exhibitions and competitions and as seminar instructor. In 2000, his expert observations on paintings by Rembrandt, Twachtman, Duveneck and Monet were recorded on two random access Masterpiece Audio Guides for the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Samson was a contributor to the Classical Realist Journal and author of an article on portrait painting for The Artist's Magazine. He and wife Carol co-wrote an article on Herman Wessel's murals for the April 2007 inaugural issue of the Salon America Journal. Carl is a full member of the Guild of the American Society of Classical Realism; a past board member of the Cincinnati Art Club, and has advised the board of the Frank Duveneck House and Museum. Other memberships include the American Society of Portrait Artists and the MacDowell Society. In addition, Samson is featured in Who's Who in American Art and Who's Who in America. His works are in corporate, public and private collections in Cincinnati and around the world.