Alfred William Finch was born in Brussels, Belgium to English parents and lived his later life in Finland.

Finch trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and on 28 October 1883, Finch became a founding member of Les XX, a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, who rebelled against the prevailing artistic standards and outmoded academism. He was impressed by the works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac and changed his own painting style from a more realistic approach into a pointillistic style. In the following years, Finch became one of the leading representatives of his style in Belgium, along with Théo van Rysselberghe.

During the early 1890s, Finch switched careers from painting to pottery, upon the realization that he couldn't make a living by painting. Invited by count Louis Sparre, Finch moved to Porvoo, Finland in 1897 to head the Iris ceramics factory, and influenced the development of the local Jugendstil. After the factory was closed, Finch resumed his painting career. He died in Helsinki in 1930.

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