Sir Samuel Luke Fildes KCVO RA (3 October 1843[2] – 28 February 1927)[3] was a British painter and illustrator born in Liverpool and trained at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools.

Fildes shared his grandmother's concern for the poor and in 1869 joined the staff of The Graphic newspaper, an illustrated weekly began and edited by the social reformer, William Luson Thomas.

Fildes shared Thomas' belief in the power of visual images to change public opinion on subjects such as poverty and injustice.

He worked in a social realist style, compatible with the editorial direction of The Graphic, and focused on images depicting the destitute of London.

[4] In the first edition of The Graphic newspaper that appeared in December 1869, Luke Fildes was asked to provide an illustration to accompany an article on the Houseless Poor Act, a new measure that allowed some of those people out of work to shelter for a night in the casual ward of a workhouse.

He took rank among the ablest English painters, with The Casual Ward (1874), The Widower (1876), The Village Wedding (1883), An Al-fresco Toilette (1889); and The Doctor (1891), now in Tate Britain.

[5] In 1918, he was appointed as Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) by King George V.[6] Fildes produced a large number of caricatures for Vanity Fair under the nom de crayon "ELF".