(1846 - 1939)
Hamilton Plantagenet MacCarthy was born in England; the son of sculptor Hamilton Wright MacCarthy. His mother was Canadian. He trained under his father; at the St Marylebone School; and in Antwerp. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, from 1875 to 1884. Aged 39 he left London for Toronto, eventually settling in Ottawa. He was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1889. MacCarthy is best-known for portrait busts, including those of the first Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair and Sir John Alexander Macdonald; and also for public monuments, including the ‘Boer War Monument’ (Nova Scotia, 1900) and ‘Samuel de Champlain with Astrolabe’ (Ottawa, 1915). His 15 children include Coeur de Lion MacCarthy (1881-1979), also a sculptor.
