Elizabeth Rivers

Although born in England, Elizabeth Rivers spent the majority of her working life in Ireland. She trained at Goldsmith's College (1921-1924) and attended the Royal Academy Schools where she trained under Walter Sickert. She studied wood engraving under Noel Rooke (1881-1953) an influential English practitioner. Rivers's distinctive wood engravings, which are stylised and linear, feature in numerous books and periodicals including the BBC 'Radio Times', 'One the Edge' by Walter de la Mare and 'The man who invented sin' by Sean O'Faolain. In a 1962 interview she said: 'I like things to be very spare. I like to cut it down to the absolute essential, so that everything in it counts'. She was also a painter and spent long periods in the 1930s and 40s living and working on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands. She worked with Evie Hone on her stained glass designs for 9 years until Hone's death in 1955. She was a founder member of the Graphic Studio Workshop in 1961, where she taught wood engraving.