Hamilton MacCarthy

MacCarthy's father Hamilton Wright MacCarthy exhibited independent works at the Royal Academy and the British Institution in 1838 and between 1846 and 1867. They included a number of portrait busts (10-12). He contributed to the Great Exhibition a group of a deer hunt, consisting of a Scottish huntsman about to blow his horn, with a felled stag and two dogs 'executed in silver for ornamental purposes'. It was praised as 'a spirited performance, well composed' and was considered 'a credit to the designer'.

File:OntarioSocietyofArtistsMembers1889.jpg Members (1889) - MacCarthy (back row, second from right)]]

His wife exhibited a statuette of a famous racehorse, 'Pyrrhus The First', at the BI in 1857. Their son, Hamilton P MacCarthy, was also a sculptor and he exhibited portraiture and ideal works at the Royal Academy between 1875 and 1884.{{Cite web |url=http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1712 |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851 |access-date=31 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709070351/http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1712 |archive-date=9 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}

In London, MacCarthy studied with his father, and in Antwerp under Kerckhoven and at the RA Schools in London.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/maccarthy-hamilton-plantagenet|title=MacCARTHY Hamilton Plantagenet 1846-1939 |publisher=Artist Biographies}} He also attended St Marylebone School.Obituary. The Gazette (Montreal). 25 October 1939 At age 39, MacCarthy moved from London, England to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1885. Thirteen years later he moved to Ottawa. He studied at Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A.) and, later, was made a member of Council (1906). He was also a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (O.S.A.). His work appears in galleries and public parks throughout Canada.

MacCarthy had 15 children. The first three were born in England, the others in Canada.{{cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.maccarthy/20|title=Descendants of Hamilton MacCarthy, sculptor (1847-1939)|date=2003-09-20|via=ancestry.com}}{{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}} One of his sons Coeur de Lion MacCarthy (1881–1979) also became a sculptor.

Coeur de Lion executed many busts of political figures including the bust of Queen Victoria for the alcove above the Speaker's Chair in the Senate Chamber. He worked with Dominion carver Cléophas Soucy on the figures for the Parliament Buildings including the lions at the entrance. MacCarthy set up a studio in Montreal in 1918. He is well known for his sympathetic memorials for the CPR and the Verdun War Memorial.{{cite web|url=http://app.vancouver.ca/PublicArt_Net/ArtistDetails.aspx?ArtistID=66&ArtworkType=ALL&Neighbourhood=ALL&Ownership=ALL&Program=ALL|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713214339/http://app.vancouver.ca/PublicArt_Net/ArtistDetails.aspx?ArtistID=66&ArtworkType=ALL&Neighbourhood=ALL&Ownership=ALL&Program=ALL|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 July 2012|title=Coeur de Lion|publisher=City of Vancouver}}

Samuel de Champlain

The Hamilton MacCarthy sculpture of Samuel de Champlain in Ottawa became controversial later in the 20th century. Originally it included an Anishinaabe Scout kneeling on its base. In the 1990s after lobbying by Indigenous people, the scout was removed from the sculpture's platform, renamed, and relocated as a statue in its own right to Major's Hill Park.{{cite thesis|title="very fine people on both sides"|last=Couchie|first=Aylan|type=Thesis|degree=MFA|date=2018|publisher=OCAD University|url=https://aylan-couchie.com/very-fine-people-on-both-sides/|chapter=Chapter 2: Re-Contextualizing Monuments|page=37}}

Experts have also noted that the statue depicts Champlain holding an astrolabe, but holding it upside-down.{{cite news|title=Capital Facts: The one oddity about Samuel de Champlain statue|newspaper=Ottawa Citizen|url=https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/capital-facts-the-one-oddity-about-the-samuel-de-champlain-statue|date=2017-02-02}}

File:Champlain statue with archer.jpg|Samuel de Champlain, Nepean Point, Ottawa

File:Champlain statue, Nepean Point, Ottawa.jpg|Samuel de Champlain, Nepean Point, Ottawa

File:Statue to South African War.jpg|Boer War Monument, Ottawa (1902)

File:Alexander Mackenzie statue, Ottawa.jpg|Alexander Mackenzie, Parliament Hill, OttawaWhile MacCarthy's name is on this statue, it has been suggested that he did not contribute to it (see [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=41585 Canadian Biography On Line] )

File:Province House War Memorial.JPG|South African War Memorial, Province House, Nova Scotia

File:BattleAtWitpoortSouthAfrica1900.jpg|Battle of Witpoort, Boer War Monument, Province House, Nova Scotia

File:PaardebergMonumentHalifaxNovaScotia.JPG|Battle of Paardeberg

File:MafekingMonumentHalifaxNovaScotia.JPG|Siege of Mafeking

File:HaroldBorden2ndBoerWar.jpg|Harold Borden Monument, Canning, Nova Scotia

File:Witpoort2ndBoerWar.jpg|Battle of Witpoort, Harold Borden Monument, Canning, Nova Scotia

File:VetRiver2ndBoerWar.jpg|Battle of Cortzee Drift (Vet River), Harold Borden Monument, Canning, Nova Scotia

File:Pierre_Dugua_de_Mons_-_02.jpg|Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, Quebec City (An exact replica of the bust at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia)

File:BoerWarMonumentHalifaxPublicGardensNovaScotia.jpg|Boer War Sculpture, Halifax Public Gardens (1903)

File:Sir John A on a sunny day in Toronto.jpg|Sir John A. Macdonald, Queen's Park (Toronto)

File:JamesWhitney-Statue-Queen'sPark-Toronto.jpg|Sir James Pliny Whitney, Queen's Park, Toronto

File:Egerton Ryerson - Statue on Ryerson Campus 20051208.JPG|Egerton Ryerson, Ryerson University, Toronto (1889-2021) removed by protesters demonstrating against Ryerson's role in the Canadian Indian residential school system.

File:Tecumseh bust at the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg|Tecumseh, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

File:Isaac Brock bust at the Royal Ontario Museum.JPG|General Isaac Brock, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

{{Commons category|Hamilton MacCarthy}}

File:General Brock Courthouse Building Brockville Ontario.JPG|General Brock, Courthouse, Brockville, Ontario

File:Boer War memorial Quebec City.jpg|Boer War Monument, Quebec City, Quebec (1902)

File:Can-BC-Victoria Burns statue.jpg|Robert Burns monument by Hamilton MacCarthy, Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, referencing an embraced Highland Mary

• Parting of Paul and Virginia (1876)
• Boer War Monument at Province House, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
• Boer War Monument, Brantford, Ontario (1903)
• Hamlet and Ophelia (1880)
• Lucius O'Brien - National Gallery of Canada
• Queen Victoria - bust, (1897)
• Champlain, Saint John, New Brunswick Queen Square South End.
• Brown Moose, bust of fictional Mohawk warrior (within Conan Doyle’s “the refugees”) 1896

{{Reflist}}

• [http://thecanadasite.com/art/art34a_maccarthy1.html Images of works by Hamilton MacCarthy]
• [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib1_1218106440 Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851-1951]
• [http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=3424 National Gallery of Canada]
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19391025&id=qL4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rZgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1892,1250118 Obituary - Montreal Gazette]

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Category:Sculptors from London

Category:English male sculptors

Category:English emigrants to Canada

Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Category:Canadian modern sculptors

Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)

Category:1846 births

Category:1939 deaths

Category:People educated at St Marylebone School

Category:20th-century British sculptors

Category:19th-century British sculptors