Sally Arnup – Arab Horse, Aslan

Sally Arnup was an English sculptor known for her depictions of animals. Arnup’s speciality as an artist was for bronze animal sculptures, often created with the live animal present.

Sally Arnup was born in London and began studying at the Kingston School of Art at the age of thirteen. She later studied at Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal College of Art where she was taught by both Frank Dobson and John Skeaping. In 1955 she won the Royal Society of British Sculptors’ Feodora Gleichen Award for women artists. From 1958 to 1972 Arnup was the Head of Sculpture at York College of Art. Her husband Mick Arnup also taught art at the college. Both Sally Arnup and her husband retired from teaching in 1974 to focus on their artistic careers.

Among Arnup’s most notable commissions was a work for the Duke of Edinburgh’s 80th Birthday, depicting his Fell Pony Stormand in 1971 she cast a silver leopard which was presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II by the City of York. A life-sized sculpture of an Irish Wolfhound by Arnup was posthumously donated to the York Art Gallery in 2017.

She regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Paris Salon. In 1968 the University of York hosted a solo exhibition of her work as did Gainsborough House in Suffolk during 1998.

The Arnup Studio where both Sally and Mick Arnup worked, was opened to the public in 2011 as part of York Open Studios.

Quote from his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh

“It is no mean achievement to be able to convey the character, and characteristics of individual animals in bronze. Sally Arnup has a wealth of experience in the sculpture of animals and she also has the talent to capture their personality. Her speciality may not conform to the contemporary fashion for abstract art, but her style is nonetheless unique and timeless”.