Miss Arnrid Banniza Johnston

Born 1895
Died 8 July 1972

Active: 1914 - 1952

Country of birth: Sweden

Country of death: England

Sculptor, teacher, carver, illustrator, author

Born Uddevalla, Sweden. She was the daughter of Arthur Sannox Johnston (1863-1929), a corn and grain merchant and Lily Ann, who was Swedish. Arnrid studied at the Slade (c.1914-21) where her tutor was James Havard Thomas.

Johnston's most important work before 1931 was a three-sided group in Portland stone for Walden House, Pimlico, which depicted children playing with a base surrounded by animals. This was presented to the City of Westminster by the Duke of Westminster and took her four years to complete. Other reliefs included: Cats on a Chimney Cowl, Squirrels, Resting Horses, Milking and a Pastoral (this last in blue Belgian marble). Johnston's works in the round included a cow and a girl, a wooden cat and a St Francis in mahogany. Her sculpture was represented by 'In Pasture' (green serpentine) and a bird bath in the Garden Sculpture Exhibition which took place on the roof at Selfridge's Department Store in 1930.

From c.1930 Johnston designed posters for the Underground Group and London Transport and this led her into illustration. Between the early 1930s and early 1950s she wrote and/or illustrated more than twenty books. Many of these concerned animals which she meticulously researched. Amongst her better known titles were 'Animal Families', Country Life, 1939, 'Animals We Use', Methuen, 1948, and 'Fables From Aesop and Others', Transatlantic Arts, 1944. In later years her eyesight deteriorated which cut short her illustration work. In her obituary H.J. Blackham said 'her many friends found her robust generous personality as characterful as her animals.'

Information about her works drawn from Parkes (1931), p. 125. This record includes information submitted by Dr. Julia Kelly.

Wealth at death: £40,258 0s. 0d.
Probate date: 15 January 1973

Citing this record

'Miss Arnrid Banniza Johnston', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1207091620, accessed 04 Jun 2023]