Entitled "Garden Gate", this 1925 drypoint etching is by the celebrated British painter, printmaker, and illustrator Eileen Alice Soper (1905-1990), famous  for  her  etchings of  children.  Measuring 6 3/4" x11 1/2", 19" x 15" framed, it is a clean, bright impression,  in excellent condition with no holes, tears, stains or toning and  nicely framed.
Illustrator and printmaker, daughter of George Soper, Eileen Soper was born in Enfield, Middlesex. Three years later she moved to Harmer Green, Hertfordshire, and the family resided in a house built by her father until her death eighty-two years later. Eileen was privately educated and spent some time at Hitchin Girls' School, but she developed her talent as an artist through working with her father. She exhibited two etchings at the Royal Academy as a fifteen-year-old and was immediately hailed as a child prodigy by the critics. Soper went on to exhibit at the Abbey Gallery, Alpine Gallery, Fine Art Society, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts and at the Royal Scottish Academy.

During the 1930's she attempted to publish volumes of illustrated children's verse, but it was only from 1941, with her long association with Enid Blyton, that she succeeded as a writer and illustrator. Her illustrations for Blyton's 'Famous Five' in particular have fired generations of children. Inspired by the appearance of badgers in her garden, Eileen Soper produced 'When Badgers Awake' which in turn instigated her second career as a wildlife artist. She was a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and elected to the Royal Society of Miniature Painters in 1972. The estate and copyright of Eileen Soper are now in the care at the Chris Beetles Gallery who regularly exhibits her work. A portrait by Eileen Soper of Olympic Gold Medal winner Eric Liddell is in the collection of the National Gallery of Scotland.