Ruth Smith (artist)

Ruth Smith Nielsen ( born April 5, 1913 in Vágur, Faroe Islands, † May 26, 1958 ibid ) was a Faroese painter and graphic artist.

Life

Ruth was in 1913 as the daughter of the fisherman and color merchant Johan Smith ( 1882-1922 ) and Elin Caroline Djurhuus ( 1881-1960 ) in Vágur on Suðuroy, the South Island of Faroese born. Her father was forced by illness ashore and died when she was only nine years old. Along with her ​​siblings, she worked in his small business, and with 15 Ruth was a letter carrier in their place.

In 1930 she went to Denmark to become a nurse. But first, they struggled along as a maid until she found a better position in the laundry of the Diakonia pin from Copenhagen. Ruth drew since childhood and even now at their leisure. One of the patients in the diakonia pen discovered her talent and made ​​contact with Bizzie Høyers Zeichenschule ago, which she attended from 1933 to 1934. From 1936 to 1943 she studied at the Painting School of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen.

On April 12, 1945, she married one of her fellow students, the architect and managing director Poul Nielsen Morell ( May 3, 1919 in Aalborg, † 14 November 1990 Lemvig ). From this marriage the sons Leif went ( b. 1947 ) and Louis ( b. 1952 ) produced. In 1948 the couple on the Faroe Islands, as Ruth sought for new inspiration. They lived first in Vágur and later in the neighboring village of Nes.

In May 1958, she drowned floating alone in his native fjord, the Vágsfjørður.

Work

Ruth Smith went with the colors around sensitive than any other of their contemporaries; their style of painting is characterized by short, examined strokes with which she captures the Faroese light in her paintings. From Cézanne inspired to wear their impressionistic landscapes trains. Nevertheless, it is considered to be representative of realism.

Be your two self-portraits from 1955 and 1956 (see stamp ), also thanks to the attention of her former teacher Aksel Jørgensen, of the Art Academy, counted among the most important paintings of the Faroe Islands and the north and are located in the Art Museum of the Faroe Islands.

Her life was Ruth Smith as very shy and withdrawn, many of her works she painted over in constant self-criticism.