Eileen Alice Soper (26 March 1905 – 18 March 1990) was an English etcher and illustrator of children's and wildlife books. She produced a series of etchings, mainly of children playing, and illustrated books for other writers, notably for

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been tra ...

and Elizabeth Gould. She also wrote and illustrated her own children's book. Some of her illustrations of children and animals were used in a china series for children by Paragon China in the 1930s. Later in life she concentrated on writing and illustrating wildlife books. She was a founder member of the

Society of Wildlife Artists The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) is a British organisation for artists who paint or draw wildlife. It was founded in 1964. Its founder president was Sir Peter Scott, the current president of the society is British artist Harriet Mead. The s ...

(SWLA) and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) in 1972.

Early years

Eileen Soper was born in 1905 in the

Municipal Borough of Enfield Enfield was a local government district in Middlesex, England from 1850 to 1965. History The parish of Enfield adopted the Public Health Act 1848 ( 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63) in 1850, and formed a local board of health of 12 members to govern the ...

Herts Memories by Catherine Davies
Retrieved 18 January 2013 and moved to the house where she was to spend the rest of her life in Harmer Green,

Welwyn Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the nearby villages and settlements of Digswell, Mardley Heath and Oaklands. The village is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to ...

in the

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

countryside in 1908. The house she later named "Wildings" was built by her father, the artist George Soper (illustrator) . Eileen and her older sister, the artist Eva, inherited the house after his death in 1942 and lived there for the rest of their lives. She attended Hitchin Girls School and was artistically trained mostly by her father.

Achievements

Soper showed early promise as an artist, and two of her etchings were shown in the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in London at the age of 15 after she showed three prints at an exhibition organised by the International Society of Printmakers in California. She continued to produce around 180 etchings, mostly of children at play, into the early 1930s. Queen Mary bought two of her etchings, among them ''Flying Swings'' in 1924. Her work was popular and well received and shown in the UK and the US. Today Soper is best known for her collaboration with

, most notably all of the ''Famous Five'' books. Soper also published her own children's books in the 1940s, as well as a book of poetry. From the 1950s on, she worked mostly on her wildlife illustrations of British wildlife around her house in Welwyn.

Later years

Soper and her sister Eva lived in Wildings until they fell ill at similar times, both dying in 1990.

Bibliography

Published books (author)

Children's books

* ''Happy Rabbit'' (1947) * ''Dormouse awake'' (1948) * ''Sail away, shrew'' (1949)

Wildlife books

* ''When badgers wake'' (1955) * ''Wild encounters'' (1957) * ''Wanderers of the field'' (1959) * ''Wild Favours'' (1963) * ''Muntjac'' (1969)

Poetry

* ''Songs on the wind'' (1948)

Published books (illustrator)

* ''Famous Five Series'' (Enid Blyton, 1942–1963) * * ''The Golden Years'' (Christine Chaundler), 1950, publisher Robert Hale Ltd (London) * ''Six in a Caravan'', Bridget Mackenzie, 1945, publisher George Newness Ltd.

References

External links

Chris Beetles Gallery Page

BBC Feature

Cambridge Prints Gallery

Hertfortshire Memories
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soper, Eileen 1905 births 1990 deaths Artists from Hertfordshire Artists from the London Borough of Enfield English children's book illustrators English women children's book illustrators Enid Blyton illustrators People from Enfield, London People from Welwyn Wildlife artists