American painter Daniel Graves was born in Rochester, New York. Graves graduated from the Maryland Art Institute in 1972 where he studied with Joseph Shepard and Frank Russell.
He continued his studies at the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art in Florence, Italy, with Richard Serrin.
Following a course of training with Richard Lack in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he taught at the Atelier Lack Studio of Fine Art.
In the late 1970s, Graves returned to Florence and undertook individual study with Nerina Simi, who maintained a classical nineteenth-century studio. Ms. Simi was the daughter of the Florentine painter Filadelfo Simi, who had studied with Jean-Leon Gerome, the head of the French Academy in Paris in the 1870s.