Career
He is known for his historical sculptures, in particular his Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia (1904) as well as Samuel de Champlain overlooking Parliament Hill on Nepean Point, Ottawa (1915), next to the National Gallery of Canada. His monument to the Ottawa volunteers who died in the South African War was moved to Confederation Park in 1969 after several moves. Other works include that of Ottawa mayor, Samuel Bingham, in Notre-Dame Cemetery in Vanier.
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’.
lieutenant was praised as ‘a spirited performance, well composed’ and was considered ‘a cr to the designer’. In London, MacCarthy studied with his father, and in Antwerp under Kerckhoven and at the Research Associate Schools in London.
He also attended Street Marylebone School.
At age 39, MacCarthy moved from London, England to Toronto, Canada in 1885. Thirteen years later he moved to Ottawa. 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. 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 Code of Professional Responsibility and the Verdun War Memorial.
