Matthew Andrew Daly (1883-1903)

Matthew Andrew Daly was born in Cincinnati on January 13, 1860. He attended the Cincinnati School of Design from 1877 through 1880. In 1883, after a brief employment at the Matt Morgan Art Pottery Company, he and his coworker Nicholas Joseph Hirschfeld came to Rookwood.

He worked at Rookwood for nearly 20 years until 1903. His early work is generally indistinguishable from the other Rookwood artists with a conservative Japanesque decorative style using a limited repertory of leafy bamboo, flying butterfly, and flying swallows.

 

It was not long before he developed his own style which led him to become one of the most respected of all Rookwood artists. He was an active landscape and portrait painter during his career at Rookwood, and for many years after as well. A few years before his death, he married Olga Geneva Reed, another Rookwood artist. Matthew Daly died in Cincinnati in the year 1937.