Signed etching, dated 1919. Mounted, glazed and framed.
"Pit Props for the Trenches" by George Soper* RA (1870-1942) - etcher, engraver & watercolourist + war artist, illustrator & poster maker.
Size of image: 8 ins x 5 ins. Size of product: 13.5 x 10.5 ins.
*Born in Devon, Soper was brought up in Somerset, later moving to Welwyn Garden City. He studied engraving under Sir Frank Short at South Kensington School of Art and exhibited at the Royal Academy every year from the age of 19 until his death in 1942.
With little formal training, Soper worked professionally as an illustrator and was an accomplished artist and printmaker. Although elected member of the Royal Society of Painter-Engravers in 1920, his work remained largely unknown during his lifetime.
His vision was to recognise that the traditional skills and way of life of manual workers on both land and sea was disappearing forever and he set to record this for posterity. His work captures not only the beauty, but also, the sheer hard work and physicality of working the land before mechanisation all but destroyed the traditional skills and jobs forever.