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Chris Beetles Ltd took over the Soper Estate on behalf of the Artists General Benevolent Institution (AGBI) in 1995. With this charity in mind we have continued to keep the etchings as originally priced and these prices are now mostly surpassed in auction. The etchings on the website are now very limited in number and will be removed from the site as they sell.
View George Soper's prints · View Eileen Soper's prints
As an illustrator and trained lithographic printer George Soper was initially more familiar with the new photo-mechanical methods of reproduction than with more traditional printmaking media. Nevertheless, he became an expert printmaker and gained most recognition during his lifetime as an etcher and later as a wood engraver, and over three decades produced more than five hundred prints.
As a printmaker, he continued to draw on his strengths as an illustrator and painter in order to convey the maximum amount of information especially regarding the activities of the rural environment. He had exhibited paintings since 1890 (at the Royal Academy), and in 1913 showed his first print (at the Royal Scottish Academy). He studied printmaking under Sir Frank Short at the Royal College of Art (1916-20) and worked extensively as a printmaker during the print boom of the twenties, influenced by such diverse printmakers as William Palmer Robins, Whistler and Sir George Clausen. He was elected ARE in 1918, and RE in 1920.
George was inspired to represent the rural world around him, focussing on the agricultural work itself, conveying both the particulars of each task and the degree of energy that it demanded. Considered one of the finest exponents in the representation of the horse he explored the extensive uses of both the horse and his master in different environments; from pulling the plough to hauling logs and retrieving lifeboats. However, George was not averse to learning from the success of Eileen’s preoccupation with children’s play and he reconsidered it in adult terms. In the 1920’s, he replaced the games of children with the country pursuits of the upper classes, producing a number of prints of salmon fishing, polo, fox hunting and steeple-chasing, he also produced several prints of dogs. Though he always remained faithful to observable fact, his particular sympathy and respect for countrymen enabled him to transform them into archetypes and his comprehensive oeuvre encompassed and recorded a way of life lost to the mechanisation of the agricultural industry.
Encouraged by her father in the art of printmaking from an early age, Eileen soon rivalled him in talent and surpassed him in popularity, while neatly complementing his subjects by depicting children at play. Her etchings, exhibited in England at the Royal Academy from 1921, when she was only sixteen, attracted great attention, among critics, fellow artists and the general public.
Eileen’s etchings concern themselves with the ordinary events that make up a child’s day, simple and perhaps monotonous to the adult but ever fresh to the child itself. The majority of her etchings deal with children at play – on the beach, in country lanes and on street corners – or with animals, as in ‘The Linnet’s Freedom’ . Other plates show a sensitive approach to the solitary child as in the captivation of a child listening to ‘The Children’s Hour’ on the wireless. One of the reasons why she was able to depict such honest images of children free from nostalgia was that she was scarcely more than a child herself, producing most of the etchings whilst she was in her teens or early 20s.
Eileen’s early plates are characterised by a their multiple states, small sizes and focusing on one, two sometimes three, children. Her later plates reflect her growing confidence in composition. This confidence enabled her to depict a greater number of children in detailed settings without overcrowding the image, produced with fewer re-workings and states.
In 1930 the etching market declined and Eileen turned her skills to other forms of artistic expression. But it was not just for financial reasons that she turned away from etching. Quite simply, the child Eileen had grown up and no longer possessed the child’s frank and naïve vision of the world which had enabled her to capture children without sentimentality.
For further information please consult our 2 extensive volumes on the Sopers:
The Art of George and
Eileen Soper
128 pages with 265 illustrations, £15
Catalogue Raisonné
of the Prints and Etchings of George and Eileen Soper
160 pages with 703 illustrations, £25
