A painter, engraver, illustrator and author, Elizabeth Rivers spent most of her life in Ireland.

She was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Goldsmiths College in London. Awarded a scholarship, she studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1926 to 1931, after which she moved to Paris to continue her art studies. She first visited Ireland in 1935. During World War II she lived in London serving as a fire warden during the Blitz.

She spent the years 1957 to 1959 in Cornwall, owning a cottage, Lantinning, in St Anthony-in-Meneage. She illustrated some of the books on Cornwall by Clara Coltman Rogers Vyvyan.

She died in her home in Dalkey, County Dublin.