Born in Cincinnati in 1860, Matthew Andrew Daly was a pupil of some of the city's most influential masters, including Frank Duveneck and Thomas Noble. Though widely celebrated for his twenty-year career at Rookwood Pottery, where he produced many of the firm’s most iconic and sought-after vases, Daly’s true passion lay in landscape and portrait painting. His work, characterized by a soft, luminous quality, remains a cornerstone of regional history and is represented in the permanent collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum. He was a lifelong contributor to the local arts, holding memberships in the Cincinnati Art Club and the American Artists Professional League. He died in 1937.