Known for painted tiles, ceramic-topped tables, and glazed vessels, McCarthy covered the surfaces of his objects with nude figures. In this, he was inspired by the Barnes Foundation’s collection where he studied and later taught. The large female figures swimming through a deep blue ocean are reminiscent of the figures in Henri Matisse’s great mural there, The Dance.Known for painted tiles, ceramic-topped tables, and glazed vessels, McCarthy covered the surfaces of his objects with nude figures. He was inspired by paintings at the Barnes Foundation, where he studied and later taught. With their strong silhouettes against a deep blue ocean, McCarthy’s figures are reminiscent of the figures in Henri Matisse’s great mural at the Barnes, The Dance.
Born in Philadelphia, McCarthy took to the arts as a child. In the early 1940s he met Dr. Albert C. Barnes, who became a supportive friend and patron. McCarthy studied at the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia College of Art (later the University of the Arts), the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He taught at the Barnes, the Friends Neighborhood Guild, and at Fleisher Art Memorial for over five decades. McCarthy’s work is in the collections of Woodmere, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the Barnes, and others.
