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20. Elizabeth Rivers (1903-1964)
Mackerel Harvest
Wood engraving, 7.5 x 9.5cm
Signed, inscribed and numbered 2/6
Fig. 7.The artist and friend on Aran
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Born 1903 in England; Rivers studied first at Goldsmith’s College, under Edmund J. Sullivan
(1869-1933) from 1921 until 1924, showing distinct interest in wood engraving. She won a
scholarship to the Royal Academy, where she studied for five years under Walter Sickert, and
won a number of medals and prizes.
Between 1931-34, she studied in Paris under Lhoté and Severini, and also at the Ecole de
Fresque. She held her 1st one woman exhibition in theWertheim Gallery, Manchester in
1933. In 1935 she visited Aran where she went to live the following year. She lived on Inis
Mór until 1943, exhibiting during these years in Manchester, London and Dublin, including the
RHA in 1936. During the war years, she worked in London as a fire warden, but returned
to Aran, publishing Stranger in Arán with The Cuala Press in 1946, she painted in Dublin, and
assisted Evie Hone in her stained glass studio. She contributed regularly to the Irish Exhibition
of Living Art. A memorial exhibition was held at the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1966.
Fig. 7a. Elizabeth Rivers and Letitia Hamilton
at Rivers exhibition in the Dawson
Gallery May 1960
