Samuel Begg was born in London in 1854.

In about 1860 Sam Begg's family emigrated to New Zealand, taking with them a staircase, oak and a cow. They built a wooden house on the hill at Napier and people said it would blow away. It is called Prospect and is still there as is another wooden house for a daughter. They survived the 1931 earthquake.

In 1868 Sam left home to work as a surveyor on new developments.

In the early 1870's he worked for a time in Eketahuna where he helped with the engineering of the new settlement for Scandinavian immigrants. In 1874 he realised he would like to be an artist, not a surveyor.

It was probably in about 1876 that Sam got a contact with the Auckland Herald for a set of drawings of Scenes around Auckland. It is believed the the two paintings show may be his first watercolours

He soon moved to Australia and stayed for a while in Sydney and in 1880 Sam started work for the Illustrated Australian News in Melbourne. In 1883 he left for England and then Paris where he studied art in Julian's Studio. In 1895 he joined the staff of the Illustrated London News as an illustrator until 1919.

He was a friend of Russel Flint (Sir William Russell Flint RA 1880 – 1969) and in fact advised him to spend more time doing water colour painting rather than black and white. Later he regretted suggesting this in case Russel Flint considered that Sam was trying to keep the Black and White work to himself.

In 1912, while visiting India on a commission, he returned to Eketahuna for a visit and was warmly welcomed by the community.

Begg died on the 7th of January 1936