Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Darly, Matthew
DARLY, MATTHEW (fl. 1778), engraver, was an artists' colourman, and kept a shop in the Strand in the latter part of the last century. He was better known as a caricaturist than as an engraver, though Anthony Pasquin was apprenticed to him to learn the latter art. In the earlier part of his career he advertised ladies and gentlemen that he taught the use of the dry paint, engraving, &c., and then lived in Cranbourne Alley, off Leicester Square. He was one of the first who sold prepared artists' colours and materials. He published some of the earliest of Henry Bunbury's sketches, and two numbers of ‘Caricatures by several Ladies, Gentlemen, and Artists.’ He is known to have produced altogether some three hundred caricatures, as well as some marine and other subjects. In 1778 he advertised a ‘Comic Exhibition.’ He lived for a time at Bath.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]