Westfjords fisherman's daughter trained, then absorbed
Karitas Jónsdóttir, daughter of a Westfjords fisherman, is sent to study at the Copenhagen art academy in the early twentieth century, so as a young woman she holds real training and ambition. She returns to Iceland, marries, and on a rural homestead is consumed by childbearing, farm and household labour, and the long absences of a seafaring husband. Painting survives only in stolen moments. The case tests whether formal access to education is enough to make an artist when the life that follows gives her no room to practise.