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John Cassidy (artist)

John Cassidy (1 January 1860 – 19 July 1939) was an Irish sculptor and painter who worked in Manchester, England, and created many public sculptures.

John Cassidy
Portrait photograph of John Cassidy with large moustache
1899 photograph of John Cassidy
Born(1860-01-01)1 January 1860
Died19 July 1939(1939-07-19) (aged 79)
St Joseph's Hospital, Whalley Range, Manchester
Resting placeSouthern Cemetery, Manchester
NationalityIrish
Alma materManchester School of Art
Known forStatue of Edward Colston
MovementNew Sculpture
Websitejohncassidy.org.uk
Statue of Edward Colston by Cassidy, The Centre, Bristol, England, 2006, pulled down and pushed into Bristol Harbour in June 2020

Life

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1910 portrait of John Cassidy by Reginald Barber in the Manchester Art Gallery

Cassidy was born in the townland of Littlewood Commons, Slane, County Meath, Ireland, on 1 January 1860. He moved to Dublin at the age of 20 to find work. There he attended art classes at night and won a scholarship to study in Milan, Italy. After two years, he moved to Manchester, England, where he lived for the rest of his life.[1] He studied at the Manchester School of Art in 1883 and taught there in 1887.[2]

He created many public sculptures, especially war memorials, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy and in Manchester City Art Gallery. He was for a time assisted in his studios by John Ashton Floyd, a local sculptor.[1] For most of his career, his studio was at Lincoln Grove in Chorlton-on-Medlock.

Works

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The body of Cassidy's work consisted mainly of memorials and statues.

In 1894, the philanthropist Enriqueta Rylands commissioned a statue from Cassidy of her late husband, the textile manufacturer John Rylands. It was placed in the reading room of the John Rylands Library in Manchester, which she founded in her husband's memory.[3][4] Supporters of the library later commissioned Cassidy to sculpt a statue of Enriqueta herself, which was unveiled in 1907.[5] Both statues still stand today at either end of the library reading room, now part of the Manchester University Library. Also within the library is a sculpted group of three figures representing Theology inspiring Science and Art (1898).[6]

The Manchester Corporation commissioned Cassidy in 1896 to design a large ornamental fountain for Albert Square, Manchester to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The hexagonal Jubilee Fountain stood in the square until the 1920s, when it was moved to Heaton Park. In 1997 during renovations and pedestrianisation of Albert Square the fountain was restored to its original location.[7]

Another noted Manchester work is a 1907 bronze sculpture entitled Adrift, depicting a family clinging to a raft in a stormy sea, its style showing the influence of the New Sculpture movement. It was exhibited at the New Gallery in London and then gifted by the Manchester industrialist and art collector James Gresham to the Manchester Corporation, who used it as the centrepiece of the new ornamental Piccadilly Gardens, laid out c.1930. In 1953 it was replaced by a fountain and relocated. Adrift now stands in front of the Manchester Central Library in St Peter's Square.[8]

A public monument in Bristol commissioned in 1895 from Cassidy rose to prominence in 2020. Cassidy's statue of Edward Colston was erected in the area now known as The Centre to celebrate the philanthropy of the merchant Edward Colston, but had come to be considered controversial due to Colston's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. On 7 June 2020, the Colston statue was pulled from its plinth by Black Lives Matter protestors and pushed into Bristol Harbour.[9] From June 2021 the statue was exhibited at the M Shed museum in Bristol, in damaged and disfigured condition.[10]

Many of Cassidy's surviving works remain in the Manchester district, while other smaller works are held in private collections.[11]

Selected works

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Works by John Cassidy include:[11][12]

In the aftermath of World War I, Cassidy was commissioned to sculpt a number of war memorials for towns around Britain, including memorials in Eccles, Heaton Chapel/Heaton Moor, Skipton, Stourbridge and Colwyn Bay.

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    Adrift, Manchester
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    Statue of Enriqueta Rylands (detail), John Rylands Library, Manchester
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    Theology, Science and Art, John Rylands Library, Manchester
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    War Memorial, Clayton-le-Moors
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    Duthie Monument, Aberdeen
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    War Memorial, Eccles
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    Jubilee Fountain, Albert Square, Manchester
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    Statue of Edward VII, Manchester
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    War Memorial, Colwyn Bay

Death and legacy

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Cassidy's gravestone in Southern Cemetery

At the end of his life, Cassidy was living in Fallowfield in south Manchester, at 10 Albion Road. Suffering from ill health, he was taken to St Joseph's Hospital in Whalley Range. While in hospital, Cassidy continued to sculpt and was working on a bust of Pope Pius XII when he died there on 19 July 1939, aged 79. He was buried in the Roman Catholic section of Manchester's Southern Cemetery. His headstone bears the inscription, "His hands fashioned the beauty he saw".[5][13]

Many of his public sculptures remain on view in towns and cities around the United Kingdom today. A 1900 portrait of John Cassidy by Reginald Barber is in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b Obituary, Manchester City News, 22 July 1939, retrieved 26 March 2008
  2. ^ "John Cassidy RCA, RBS", Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, University of Glasgow, retrieved 20 May 2017
  3. ^ "Mr and Mrs Rylands". manchesterhistory.net. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  4. ^ ""John Rylands" by John Cassidy". victorianweb.org.
  5. ^ a b Hulme, C. & Nicolson, L. John Cassidy, Manchester Sculptor: Enriqueta Augustina Rylands
  6. ^ D. A. Farnie, 'Rylands, Enriqueta Augustina (1843–1908)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, October 2006, accessed 5 January 2016
  7. ^ "John Cassidy - Sculptor - Albert Square". www.johncassidy.org.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  8. ^ "'Adrift' - City of Manchester". John Cassidy - Manchester Sculptor. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  9. ^ Ross, Alex (7 June 2020). "Black Lives Matters protest: Edward Colston statue pulled down". Bristol Post. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  10. ^ Morris, Steven (28 May 2021). "Statue of slave trader Edward Colston to go on display in Bristol museum". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  11. ^ a b "List of works by John Cassidy, Sculptor". www.johncassidy.org.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Discover Artworks: John Cassidy 1860–1939". artuk.org. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  13. ^ "John Cassidy - Sculptor - John Cassidy's last days". johncassidy.org.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  14. ^ "John Cassidy (RBS) Reginald Barber 8 Jan 1851 - 19 Dec 1928". Manchester Art Gallery. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
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