Artists of Lanesville - MARGARET CASSIDY, Sculptor

This excerpt is from A Village at Lane's Cove by Barbara H Erkkila recently reprinted and available through Ten Pound Island Book Company. Barbara was the best chronicler of Lanesville and also authored the book Hammers on Stone-The History of Cape Ann Granite available in bookshops around Rockport and Gloucester, and The Cape Ann Museum giftshop.


Margaret Cassidy, sculptor, works in the Manship “grain room” used by the late Paul Manship as a retreat to work. Her husband, John Manship, works on art close by. She has completed portrait heads in bronze, works equally well in marble and wood, and lately is working with hydrocol, a special plaster reinforced with marble.

Margaret Cassidy studied under Antonio Berti, the sculptor in Florence, Italy. While there she assisted on the St. Louise de Marillac Group filling the last niche in St. Peter’s, and on the DeGasperi Monument in Trento. Her figure of Cardinal Newman on the facade of Newman Center at the University of Massachusetts is best known of all her work. While in Italy on a visit, she was commissioned to do a portrait of Pope John Paul from life. The attempted assassination happened when she was in the Square. To complete her work, she was given a studio area, but had to rely on photographs.
In addition to her work in sculpture and now in stained glass, Margaret Cassidy is researching the subject of American artists and their portrait, sculpture and paintings, a project that combines nicely with her husband John’s work in writing a book about his father, Paul Manship.