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

Life

Cassidy was born in Littlewood Commons,

Slane Slane () is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 (Dublin to Monaghan road) and the N51 (Drogheda to Navan road). As of the 2016 census ...

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

, Ireland, on 1 January 1860. He moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

at the age of 20 to find work. There he attended art classes at night and won a scholarship to study in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy. After two years, he moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, where he lived for the rest of his life. He studied at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

in 1883 and taught there in 1887. He created many public sculptures, especially war memorials, and exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, the

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...

and in

Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

. He was for a time assisted in his studios by John Ashton Floyd, a local sculptor. For most of his career, his studio was at Lincoln Grove in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. It ...

Works

The body of Cassidy's work consisted mainly of memorials and statues. In 1894, the philanthropist

Enriqueta Rylands Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (31 May 1843 – 4 February 1908) was a British philanthropist who founded the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Early life Enriqueta Augustina was born in Havana, Cuba, and was one of five children including José ...

commissioned a statue from Cassidy of her late husband, the textile manufacturer

John Rylands John Rylands (7 February 1801 – 11 December 1888) was an English entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the owner of the largest textile manufacturing concern in the United Kingdom, and Manchester's first multi-millionaire. After having lea ...

. It was placed in the reading room of the

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriquet ...

in Manchester, which she founded in her husband's memory. Supporters of the library later commissioned Cassidy to sculpt a statue of Enriqueta herself, which was unveiled in 1907. 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). The

Manchester Corporation Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three f ...

commissioned Cassidy in 1896 to design a large ornamental fountain for

Albert Square, Manchester Albert Square is a public square in the centre of Manchester, England. It is dominated by its largest building, the Grade I listed Manchester Town Hall, a Victorian Gothic building by Alfred Waterhouse. Other smaller buildings from the same pe ...

to mark the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

. The hexagonal Jubilee Fountain stood in the square until the 1920s, when it was moved to

Heaton Park Heaton Park is a public park in Manchester, England, covering an area of over . The park includes the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall, remodelled by James Wyatt in 1772, is now only o ...

. In 1997 during renovations and pedestrianisation of Albert Square the fountain was restored to its original location. 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 New Sculpture was a movement in late 19th-century British sculpture with an emphasis on naturalistic poses and spiritual subjects. The movement was characterised by the production of free-standing statues and statuettes of 'ideal' figures from poe ...

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 Piccadilly Gardens is a green space in Manchester city centre, England, on the edge of the Northern Quarter. It takes its name from the adjacent street, Piccadilly, which runs across the city centre from Market Street to London Road. The ga ...

, laid out c.1930. In 1953 it was replaced by a fountain and relocated. ''Adrift'' now stands in front of the

Manchester Central Library Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the building ...

in St Peter's Square. A public monument in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

commissioned in 1895 from Cassidy rose to prominence in 2020. Cassidy's

statue of Edward Colston The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant and trans-Atlantic slave trader, Edward Colston (1636–1721). It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and was formerly erected on a plinth of Portland ...

was erected in the area now known as The Centre to celebrate the philanthropy of the merchant

Edward Colston Edward Colston (2 November 1636 – 11 October 1721) was an English merchant, slave trader, philanthropist, and Tory Member of Parliament. Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine ...

, but had come to be considered controversial due to Colston's involvement in the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. On 7 June 2020, the Colston statue was pulled from its plinth by

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protestors and pushed into

Bristol Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...

. From June 2021 the statue was exhibited at the

M Shed M Shed is a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour in a dockside transit shed formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum's name is derived from the way that the port identified each of i ...

museum in Bristol, in damaged and disfigured condition. Many of Cassidy's surviving works remain in the Manchester district, while other smaller works are held in private collections.

Selected works

Works by John Cassidy include: *''Adrift'', Manchester *

Clayton-le-Moors Clayton-le-Moors is an industrial town in the borough of Hyndburn in the county of Lancashire, England. located two miles north of Accrington. The town has a population of 8,522 according to the 2011 census. To the west lies Rishton, to the ...

war memorial *Duthie Monument,

Duthie Park Duthie Park, situated in Aberdeen, Scotland, by the banks of the River Dee, comprises of land given to the council in 1881 by Lady Elizabeth Duthie of Ruthrieston, in memory of her uncle and of her brother. She purchased the land for £30,000 f ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

* John Kay memorial,

Bury, Greater Manchester Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015. The town is within the historic county boundarie ...

*Jubilee Fountain,

*Sir

Benjamin Alfred Dobson Colonel Sir Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847–1898) was an English textile machinery manufacturer and mayor of Bolton. He was chairman of Dobson & Barlow, the company co-founded in 1790 by his great-great-uncle Isaac Dobson. Early life and family D ...

statue, Bolton *

Statue of Edward Colston The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant and trans-Atlantic slave trader, Edward Colston (1636–1721). It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and was formerly erected on a plinth of Portland ...

*Statue of

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

, Manchester *Statue of

, John Rylands Library, Manchester *Bust of

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

In the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Cassidy was commissioned to sculpt a number of

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

s for towns around Britain, including memorials in Eccles,

Heaton Chapel Heaton Chapel is an area in the northern part of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, it borders the Manchester districts of Levenshulme to the north, th ...

Heaton Moor Heaton Moor is a suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is one of the Four Heatons and borders Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris and Heaton Mersey. Heaton Moor has Victorian ...

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Air ...

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

and

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

. File:Adrift statue, Manchester (2).jpg, ''Adrift'', Manchester File:Mrs Rylands.jpg, Statue of

(detail),

, Manchester File:Statues in John Rylands Library.jpg, ''Theology, Science and Art'', John Rylands Library, Manchester File:War Memorial, Mercer Park, Clayton-le-Moors - geograph.org.uk - 658686.jpg, War Memorial, Clayton-le-Moors File:Elizabeth Crombie Duthie - geograph.org.uk - 809556.jpg, Duthie Monument, Aberdeen File:Eccles War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1801156.jpg, War Memorial, Eccles File:Jubilee Fountain, Albert Square, Manchester.jpg, Jubilee Fountain, Albert Square, Manchester File:Edward VII (15371481482).jpg, Statue of Edward VII, Manchester File:Colwyn Bay War Memorial (geograph 5031285).jpg, War Memorial, Colwyn Bay

Death and legacy

At the end of his life, Cassidy was living in

Fallowfield Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilmslow Road and north–south by Wil ...

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 Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

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".Hulme, C. & Nicolson, L
John Cassidy, Manchester Sculptor: Enriqueta Augustina Rylands
/ref> 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 Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

References

External links

*
John Cassidy, Sculptor
John Rylands University Library of Manchester
John Cassidy
Slane Historical Society
John Cassidy, Manchester Sculptor
Charlie Hulme and Lis Nicolson {{DEFAULTSORT:Cassidy, John 1860 births 1939 deaths 19th-century Irish painters 19th-century Irish sculptors Male sculptors 20th-century Irish painters 20th-century Irish sculptors Burials in Greater Manchester Irish male painters People from County Meath John Rylands Research Institute and Library Burials at Southern Cemetery, Manchester 19th-century Irish male artists 20th-century Irish male artists