Nº107 Ruth Smith
Ruth Smith was born April 5th, 1913 in a small town called Vágur in the Faroe Islands. She found that she had a love for art, painting especially. So, she ventured to Denmark where she obtained a formal art education at both the Bizzie Højer Art School, and at the Art Academy of Copenhagen.
Most of her paintings are landscapes, and although she took a lot of inspiration from French impressionist artist Paul Cézanne, they fall under the realist category. The way she painted was very unique as she paid more attention to colors, which allowed her to capture light in the landscapes that make them more realistic. Despite many of her paintings being mostly landscapes, the two self portraits she created are housed in the Faroe Islands Art Museum and considered two of the most significant paintings to come from a Faroese artist.
In her personal life, she was married in 1954 to an architect named Poul Morell Nielsen. They lived in the Danish town of Lemvig until they moved back to the Faroe Islands to a town called Nes, close to her hometown. She loved to swim, but tragically drowned swimming in a lake near Vágsfjørður in 1958.
In the school she attended as a child in Vágur, the Old School on Vágsvegur 101, there is a museum now open in her honor called the Ruth Smith Art Museum where you can go view her work. If you ever find yourself on a trip to the Faroe Islands, make sure to make a stop here!
Featured below is some of Smith’s work.
