Ruth Smith

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Self-portrait 1956, 79 × 59 cm, Faroe Islands Art Museum. Postage stamp from 1985

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 born in 1913 as the daughter of the fisherman and dye dealer Johan Smith (1882-1922) and Elin Caroline Djurhuus (1881-1960) in Vágur on Suðuroy , the South Island of the Faroe Islands. Her father was forced ashore by illness and died when she was only nine years old. She worked in his small business with her siblings, and at 15 Ruth became a postman in her town.

In 1930 she went to Denmark to become a nurse . But at first she managed to get by as a maid until she found a better job in the laundry of the Diakoniestift in Copenhagen . Ruth has been drawing since childhood and now in her spare time. One of the patients in the Diakoniestift discovered her talent and made contact with Bizzie Høyer's drawing school, which she attended from 1933 to 1934. From 1936 to 1943 she studied at the painting school of the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen.

On April 12, 1945 she married one of her fellow students , the architect and manager Poul Morell Nielsen (born May 3, 1919 in Aalborg ; † November 14, 1990 in Lemvig ). The sons Leif (* 1947) and Louis (* 1952) resulted from the marriage. In 1948, the couple went to the Faroe Islands as Ruth sought new inspiration. They lived first in Vágur and later in the neighboring town of Nes .

In May 1958 she drowned swimming alone in her home fjord , the Vágsfjørður .

plant

Her painting style is characterized by short, searching strokes with which she captures the Faroese light in her pictures. Inspired by Cézanne , her landscape paintings have impressionistic features. Nevertheless, she is considered a representative of realism .

Thanks in part to the attention of her former teacher Aksel Jørgensen , her two self-portraits from 1955 and 1956 ( see postage stamp ) are counted among the most important paintings in the Faroe Islands by the Copenhagen Art Academy and can be found in the Faroe Islands Art Museum .

Throughout her life, Ruth Smith was seen as very shy and withdrawn, and she overpainted many of her works in constant self-criticism.

See also

literature

  • Dagmar Warming: Ruth Smith: Lív og Verk . Tórshavn: Listasavn Føroya, 2007 - ISBN 978-99918-987-0-4 (294 pp. Faroese)

Web links

Commons : Ruth Smith  - album with pictures, videos and audio files