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.

Statue of Enriqueta Rylands (detail), John Rylands Library, Manchester, England
Statue of Edward Colston by Cassidy, The Centre, Bristol, England, 2006, pulled down and pushed into Bristol Harbour in June 2020
Cassidy's gravestone

Life

Cassidy was born in 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.

Many of his works remain in the Manchester district, including examples in the John Rylands Library, Deansgate: a group of three figures representing Theology Inspiring Science and Art (1898), and statues in white marble of the library's founder Enriqueta Rylands (1907)[3] and her husband John Rylands (c.1900).[4] On 7 June 2020, Cassidy's bronze figure of slave trader Edward Colston from 1895 was pulled from its plinth in Bristol by protestors and pushed into Bristol Harbour.[5]

Cassidy died at St Joseph's Hospital in Whalley Range on 19 July 1939 and was buried in Southern Cemetery.[4]

References
  1. 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. D. A. Farnie, 'Rylands, Enriqueta Augustina (1843–1908)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006, accessed 5 Jan 2016
  4. Hulme, C. & Nicolson, L. John Cassidy, Manchester Sculptor: Enriqueta Augustina Rylands
  5. Ross, Alex (7 June 2020). "Black Lives Matters protest: Edward Colston statue pulled down". Bristol Post. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
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