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 first one woman exhibition in the Wertheim Gallery, Manchester in 1933.
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935 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.
Elizabeth Rivers' work featured in 'Irish Women Artists: 1870-1970' exhibition (2014). Please click here to view the catalogue.
Rivers' work was also included in 'A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism' (2011) and 'Ireland: Her People and Landscape' (2012).
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