How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC).
This image can be reproduced in any way apart from any commercial uses.
Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A bronze sculpture of a family clinging to a raft in a stormy sea. The central figure is a half-naked man, holding a sheet aloft in his raised right hand, calling for help. Arranged around him are the figures of his wife and three children. His wife is shown leaning over and kissing their infant son. To the left, is the daughter, her raised arm held in her father's left hand. At the rear is the prone figure of a youth, the elder son, holding his breast. Parts of the raft are visible in the waves which make up the base. 'Adrift' was Manchester's first modern figurative outdoor sculpture. It was the work of the Irish-born sculptor, John Cassidy. Cassidy took as his theme the changes and sorrows experienced by human beings, illustrating this by a shipwrecked family clinging to a raft on the ocean at the very moment when there is the possibility of rescue.
Title
Adrift
Date
1907
Medium
bronze
Measurements
H 210 x W (?) x D (?) cm;
Plinth: H 45 x W 158 x D (?) cm
Accession number
M2_FM_S005
Work type
Sculpture
Custodian
Manchester City Council
Work status
extant
Listing status
Grade II (England and Wales)
Unveiling date
3rd June 1908
Access
at all times
Inscription description
inscription was placed by Cassidy on the plinth: HUMANITY ADRIFT ON THE SEA OF LIFE, DEPICTING SORROWS AND DANGERS, HOPES AND FEARS AND EMBODYING THE DEPENDENCE OF HUMAN BEINGS UPON ONE ANOTHER, THE RESPONSE OF HUMAN SYMPATHY TO HUMAN NEEDS, AND THE INEVITABLE DEPENDENCE UPON DIVINE AID