Asa Cassidy, The Crosley Mansion, Sarasota Bay, 1930. Tempera on board, 18 by 39 ¾ inches.
Asa Cassidy was a New York City lithographer who sold his lithography interests and moved to Sarasota in 1924, to devote his life to painting. Cassidy loved the beauty of Sarasota Bay and built a home on Bay Island. In 1925, with artist Joseph Ness, he opened what may have been the first artist’s studio in the city on the third floor of the Blackburn Building on Main Street.
Cassidy painted portraits of actress Mary Pickford, naturalist John Burroughs, and tenor Enrico Caruso. A friend of D. W. Griffith, Cassidy designed all the posters used to advertise the classic film, The Birth of a Nation. The New York Times, May 31, 1942, reported that Cassidy produced the first motion picture filmed underwater, Wonders of The Sea while filming in the Bahamas. In Sarasota, Cassidy painted a number of aerial views of Sarasota land development. His painting Spirit of Sarasota, depicting a 1920’s bathing beauty riding a tarpon in Sarasota Bay, hung in Sarasota City Hall for years.
In 1900 Cassidy’s parents lived in St. Petersburg. A brother had squatters rights to what is now Treasure Island. Cassidy moved to Tampa in 1941 where he had a home and studio at 1008 West Platt St. He was a frequent guest at Tampa’s Students’ Art Club and on November 6, 1940, spoke to the club on “America’s Message for World Peace Through Art” and read some of his poetry. Cassidy was an honorary member of the Tampa Art Institute and the author of two books, The Rubber Nex in Florida and Who Knows.
For more on Asa Cassidy go to Articles of Florida Art and find Meet Asa Cassidy.
Asa Cassidy, Seagulls. Oil on canvas, 20 by 30 inches.
Born: 1865.
Died: February 19, 1946, Tampa.
Membership: Florida Federation of Art; Sarasota Art Association; Tampa Art Institute.
Exhibits: Edwards Theater, Sarasota, December 1, 1927, Ben Hur, the original art work for the first Ben Hur film; Florida Federation of Art, Sarasota Woman’s Club, January 18, 1931, judge; Students’ Art Club, March 1, 1933, Tampa Federated Clubs building; Federal Art Project, Art League of Manatee County, National Art Week, November 1937; Sarasota Art Association, Cain Building, Orange Avenue, Art in Our Town, December 1939.
Directory: Listed in the Sarasota City Directory in 1926 as an artist with studio on the 3rd floor of the Blackburn Building and again in 1940 as a portrait artist with studio at 2508 Almeda. Listed in the Tampa City Directory in 1941, 42, 43 as a portrait artist with a studio at 114 West Platt and in 1946, at 1008 West Platt.
Asa Cassidy, That Wonderful Bird, The Pelican. Oil on canvas, 20 by 25 ¼ inches.
