Sampson Strong: A Tudor Portraitist of Subtle Power Sampson Strong (circa 1550 – 1611) wasn’t a name that immediately resonates through the halls of art history, yet his contribution to the visual landscape of Elizabethan and Jacobean England is quietly profound. He was a resident portrait painter at Oxford University, a position he held for decades, and more importantly, a master of capturing the nuanced power dynamics within the cou…