Eileen Soper 1905-1990

Eileen Soper, Daughter of George Soper, produced about 180 different etchings, some of which she first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1921 making her at 15, the youngest ever exhibitor, two of her etchings were seen and bought by Queen Mary. She painted watercolours and illustrated many books including "The Famous five" series by Enid Blyton.

Eileen's Etchings of a particular group of children have enchanted not only the experts but have appealed to most people fortunate enough to see them. They were all produced in the twenties and even today, some 80 years later have not lost any of that original appeal.

The same children appear over and over again, taking part in all of the activities that one would expect of a child. Eileen’s secret is in being able to put so much life into her subjects that they almost bounce off the paper.

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Further reading

“The Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings of George and Eileen Soper”

“The art of George and Eileen Soper”. Essential reading showing pictures and details of 166 of Eileen’s etchings.

Both published by Chris Beetles Ltd.

I have copies of the two above books for sale and available to anyone interested.

Wildings   Duff Hart Davis  Witherby, London 1991 (now out of print, but available second-hand

Signatures

Eileen Soper used two different signatures on her etchings. She only used the first E.A. Soper up to the age of 15 and this signature is very rare. It can often be seen on the etching “The first recitation” and “ The three wees”.

The other is - Eileen A. Soper this was used for all the rest of her etchings and varied considerably in style over the years, although the form never really alters.   There are some etchings in circulation without signatures, these are mostly from a batch of etchings recovered from her home “The Wildings” after her death in 1990. They were bequeathed to “The Artists General Benevolent Institution” in Piccadilly and have been sold on their behalf over the last few years.  All of the signatures on her etchings are in pencil.