Menagerie in bronze as Sally’s sculptures go on show
MORE than 60 works in bronze by the late sculptor Sally Arnup have gone on display in North Yorkshire, before being sold by her estate.
Ms Arnup, who died four years ago, aged 85, was one of the world’s leading animal artists, creating her work from live animal models, rather than from sketches or photographs.
She shared her studio home in Holtby, York, with four owls, a long-eared rabbit, a flock of sheep, a brood of hens and an English pointer.
Her best-known commission, for the Duke of Edinburgh’s 80th birthday, saw her travel to the stables at Windsor Castle to sculpt his fell pony, Storm.
Ms Arnup’s other works include a silver leopard gifted to the Queen in 1981 by the City of York.
One of her life-size bronze sculptures, of an Irish wolfhound, was coated in wax at
York Art Gallery to allow visitors to touch it.
Her posthumous exhibition at Tennants in Leyburn, which runs until next Thursday, includes other wax models on loan from her family, as well as a reconstruction of her studio. Born in Surrey, Ms Arnup remembered having first sculpted in clay at nursery school, and had a studio in her parents’ garden shed by the time she was five.
She later studied at the Royal College of Art in London, and moved to Yorkshire in 1957 with her husband, Mick.
A former lecturer at York Art School, her work is considered increasingly collectable, and the 20in-high seated bloodhound, which Tennants will auction on January 11 in a sale of sporting art, is expected to fetch up to £4,000. Other works will be sold in the following weeks.
She shared her home with four owls, a long-eared rabbit, a flock of sheep and a brood of hens.