About Eileen Soper
Eileen Soper, born in 1905 and later died in 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 and all of the Famous Five books and also for 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 (SWLA) and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) in 1972.
Soper showed early promise as an artist, and two of her etchings were shown in the Royal Academy 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.
