Eileen Soper RMS, RWLA (born 1905)
“Sympathy”
Original Etching.
Signed in pencil
Provenance: The
Estate of George & Eileen Soper IMAGE
Eileen Soper was a painter and etcher,
illustrator, printmaker and writer. She
was born in Enfield, Middlesex and lived in Welwyn, Herts. She studied under her father George Soper,
the artist and amateur naturalist. It
was from him that she learnt etching and at the age of 15 two of her etchings
of children were accepted by the Royal Academy.
She illustrated 35 Enid Blyton books.
After the death of her father she and her sister Eva created a wildlife
sanctuary in their garden and her book When
Badgers Wake (1935) was a great success.
She wrote a number of children’s books and also a series of natural
history books. She was a Member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters,
Sculptors and Gravers and a Founder Member of the Society of Wildlife
Artists. She exhibited her work at the Royal Academy, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Royal Scottish Academy, Abbey Gallery, the Alpine Club Gallery,
Connell and Sons Gallery, the Fine Art Society and the Glasgow Institute of the
Fine Arts. Work by Eileen Soper is in the collections of the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery of
Scotland, Edinburgh who hold an oil portrait of a family
friend, Eric Liddell, the Scottish athlete and missionary. It is the only known portrait of Liddell.
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