Matthew William Webb [also known as Matthew W. Webb] was born in Paddington, London, England on 18 June 1851. Nothing has been traced about his training as an artist. He was active as a painter in London from the 1880s onwards. In 1893 he was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild and was a member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society with whom he exhibited in London in 1888, 1889, 1890, 1893, 1896, 1899 and 1903. He also exhibited at the New English Art Club, London Salon, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London; the Walker Art Gallery; and at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. His address was given as 45, Sterndale Road, West Kensington until c.1900. He later lived in Steventon, Berkshire, and in Oxford where he died on 13 October 1924.