Manchester & NorthWest Visual Artists

Manchester Celebrities
The Visual Arts (4)
Artists and Architects around Manchester

John Cassidy

(1860-1939)
John Cassidy was born in County Meath in Ireland, on the 1st of January 1860. He studied at the Manchester School of Art, then in London and later in Paris, before returning to live in Manchester, where he remained for the rest of his life. He set up a studio in Plymouth Grove. In 1887 he was engaged to give demonstrations in modelling from life at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition, at which he reputedly modelled more than 185 portrait busts during the six months of the Exhibition. His work was subsequently exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Hibernian Academy, and frequently in Manchester City Art Gallery.

Cassidy also created two matching statues in white marble of John Rylands and his wife Enriqueta Rylands, which stand either end of the reading room at the John Rylands Library in Deansgate. Also he produced portrait statues of Sir Benjamin Dorrian and Benjamin Brierley. Amongst many other works his Statue of Edward VII can still be seen in Whitworth Park. Charles Hallé and Charles Sutton are among the numerous busts of local individuals by Cassidy to be on display in Manchester Town Hall, as well as a plaque to Alderman Daniel McCabe.

"Adrift", his first figurative outdoor statue of 1908, was first exhibited in London, was purchased by James Gresham, head a local Manchester engineering company, who donated it to the City of Manchester and after several suggested sites it was eventually located on a plinth in Piccadilly Gardens. Recent redevelopment of the Gardens has required its removal - it is intended to relocate the statue eventually in St Peter's Square, subject to planning permission.

Cassidy's public sculpture can be found at various places around Manchester, as well as in Bristol, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast, Stourbridge amongst other sites around Britain. He remained a bachelor for the whole of his life and died on 19 July 1939 at his last home in Ashton-on-Mersey.

Matthew Noble

(1817-1876)
Matthew Noble was born at Hackness near Scarborough, Yorkshire on the 23rd March 1817, the son of Robert Noble, a stonemason, and served his apprenticeship with his father. As a young man Noble went to London to study under John Francis. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1845 until his death in 1876. He first came to public attention in 1856 after winning the competition to design the prestigious Monument to the Duke of Wellington in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. Though not a resident of the region, Noble did a great deal of his best and most important work within Manchester.

He eventually acquired great fame and respect as a leading portrait sculptor, and was commissioned to make many portraits of important figures, including Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the Bishop of York, Earl Feversham, and many others. His work is to be found in museums and other locations in London, Bradford, York, Manchester, as well as work in India.

Noble's London commissions include Sir Robert Peel and the Earl of Derby in Parliament Square, statues at the Royal Academy and monuments in St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. He also produced many notable church monuments, including some in York Minster. He was responsible for the Queen Victoria and Prince Consort statues, both in Salford's Peel Park and in Leeds, as well as the statue of Prince Albert facing Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square. He also produced several monuments to Sir Robert Peel, in Salford, Liverpool and Tamworth, as well as the celebrated statue of Oliver Cromwell in Wythenshawe, (formerly facing Manchester Cathedral), and monuments to Richard Cobden and Joseph Brotherton in Salford.

After a lifetime in poor health, Matthew Noble died in 1876, aged 56, with many of his works unfinished - most were completed by his assistant, J Edwards. A monument to him can be found in St Peter's Church in his hometown, Hackess.

Walter Crane

(1845-1915)
Walter Crane was born on 15 August 1845 in Liverpool, the son of Thomas Crane, was a successful local artist. While Walter was still a young man, the family moved to live in London where he was apprenticed to an engraver.
Crane became an important and major influence in late-Victorian art and design in Britain, and was appointed Director of Design at the Manchester Municipal School of Art from 1893-1896 - he was instrumental in the establishment of the Art & Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888, and was their first President.

Though he exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy (his "The Lady of Shalott" in 1862, for example), he was predominantly an illustrator and designer. By the 1870s he was an established children's book illustrator, a designer for Wedgwood, and a leading wallpaper and tile designer.
In the 1860s Crane began to take an active interest in politics and was a supporter of the Liberal Party and some of their more radical politicians such as John Bright and William Gladstone and campaigned for the 1867 Reform Act. Crane gradually developed socialistic views, and became friends with William Morris. Both men deplored the effects of modern manufacturing and the commercial system of craftsmanship and design. Deeply influenced by Morris's pamphlet "Art & Socialism", Crane gradually became involved in both the Art Workers' Guild and the Arts & Crafts Society. Although a confirmed Marxist, Crane hoped that Socialism would be achieved through education rather than revolution.

As the first President of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society he was a leading light in the revival of arts and crafts of the period, along with other major designers including William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Philip Webb and Onslow Ford.

He was also Principal of the Royal College of Art from 1897-8, and wrote many influential books on decoration and design, including "The Decorative Illustration of Books" in 1896 and "Line and Form" in 1900.
Walter Crane is best remembered today as one of the most important Victorian and Edwardian children's book illustrators, whose books are now highly collectable.

Frank Hampson

(1918-1985)
Frank Hampson was born on the 21st December 1918 in Audenshaw, and was to become a leading light in popular science fiction illustration, notably with his best known creation, Dan Dare ("Pilot of the Future!") for The Eagle Comic in the 1950s. His original artwork and imaginative storylines, represented in full colour, (then a revolutionary concept) sold around a million copies a week, the most successful ever comic in the UK. Dan Dare was to become one of the greatest English comic strip icons of all time.

Hampson's family moved to live in Southport where from the age of 11 he was educated at King George V Grammar School. He left school at 14 to become a telegraph boy with the Post Office. During the war he served in the Royal Army Service Corps and was a Dunkirk evacuee in 1940.

In 1944 Frank married Dorothy Mabel Jackson and set up the family home in Southport. In 1947 he enrolled on an Illustration Course at Southport School of Arts & Crafts, where he was described as "an outstanding draughtsman". Later he set up a screen-printing business with fellow student Harold Johns.
His professional career as an artist began working on the 'Anvil', published as a monthly national Christian magazine.

But it was the launch of the Eagle on 14th April 1950 that his big break came and the immediate success of this new large format, full colour glossy magazine caught a wide public attention and Dan Dare became its front page characterisation. So complex and time consuming were the drawings required that he had to bring in several other artists to assist; these included Bruce Cornwell, Terry Maloney and Eric Eden, and later others including Harold Johns and Jocelyn Thomas, colleagues from his days at 'Anvil'.

Initially they worked in a converted Southport bakery before moving to Epsom in August 1950, and to a purpose-built studio complex in Bayford Lodge in 1954. In every aspect of his artwork Frank was a meticulous perfectionist, who spent hours creating scenarios for Dan Dare, regularly working 20 hour days to meet pressing weekly deadlines.

In 1975, Hampson was awarded the Yellow Kid Life Achievement Award at the Italian Lucca Comics Convention, and was declared 'prestigious maestro' as best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since World War II. The following year he was presented with a special Ally Sloper award by the British Association of Comics Enthusiasts to commemorate his major contribution to the art of cartoon strips.

Frank Hampson died on the 8th July 1985 at Epsom Cottage Hospital. A blue plaque is located at his birthplace at 488 Audenshaw Road, Audenshaw in Tameside and was unveiled on 2nd November 2001 by his son Peter.

Francis Lennon MBE

(Born 1912)
Born in 1912, Francis Lennon has affectionately been called 'The People's Artist'. In 2004 Frances was included in the New years Honours List and awarded an MBE for her contribution to the arts in Manchester. Her unique and original artwork, very much in the L S Lowry school, has been extensively used as patterns for cross-stitch and embroidery. Titles such as "Our Rainy Manchester", "Back Street Kids", "The Bowling Green" and "One Too Many" exemplify the charm and nostalgia of bygone days in Manchester.

James Lamb

(1816-1903)
James Lamb was the leading Manchester cabinetmaker of his day and founded a large cabinet-making and upholstery workshop in the city, initially in John Dalton Street, and then in a large factory building in Castlefield. This factory has recently been completely restored and refurbished and is resurrected as industrial and commercial premises.

Lamb led the way in local wood craftsmanship in the north of England from 1850-1885; his company exhibited work at the London Universal Exhibition in 1862, and in Paris in 1867 and 1878, winning several awards.

An important figure in the so-called Aesthetic Movement, (a precursor of the English Arts & Crafts Movement), Lamb worked in association with several leading designers of the time, including Alfred Waterhouse and Charles Bevan and is said to have been "…the most aesthetically advanced cabinetmaker outside London in the 19th century".

He made furniture to Waterhouse's designs for the Manchester Assize Courts, which were shown at the Paris Exposition, and exhibited furniture at the 1887 Manchester Jubilee Exhibition.

James Lamb died in 1903 and is buried in St Mary's Parish Church in Prestwich. His company was taken over by Goodall, Lamb & Heighway in 1899.

Ralph Sweeney

(Born 1956)
Ralph Sweeney was born in Manchester in 1956 and attended the local Grammar school where he developed his interest in art.

Completely self taught he soon found himself busy fulfilling commissions for local businessman and several of his works have recently been sold to national companies based in Manchester. In 1994 Ralph Sweeney turned professional and twelve months later with the help of his family formed his own publishing company to help market his work.

His paintings have featured in national newspapers and have also been used to raise money for a variety of charities. Although Ralph Sweeney can paint using most mediums he specialises in pastel, particularly nostalgic scenes. He has produced several portraits of local Manchester footballers including George Best, Sir Alex Ferguson and Eric Cantona, a series of ballerinas and ballet dancers and local urban scenes around the region. Recently some of his work has been reproduced as limited edition fine art prints.