Ruth Smith (Vágur, 1913 – Vágsfjørður, 1958) was a Faroese painter whose work is part of the history of art in the Faroe Islands. Born in Vágur, she trained in Denmark, first at the Bizzie Højer Art School and later at the Art Academy of Copenhagen, which put her in direct contact with the European painting of her day.
In 1945 she married the architect Poul Morell Nielsen, and the couple lived in Lemvig, Denmark. They later returned to the Faroes, and in her last years Smith lived in Nes, a small village on the Vágsfjørður fjord, between Vágur and Porkeri. She enjoyed swimming in the sea, and in 1958 she drowned while swimming in that fjord.
Her painting handles colour with a sensitivity rare among her contemporaries. She captured the Faroese light, and in her pictures the colours seem to vibrate beneath the brushstrokes. Her landscapes, inspired by Cézanne, show Impressionist influences, although her work is generally considered representative of realism.
Her two self-portraits of 1955 are ranked among the most important paintings in the islands and are held by the Faroe Islands Art Museum. In Vágur, in the old school she attended as a child, the Ruth Smith Art Museum, known locally as Ruth Smith Savnið, was established to honour her. It holds paintings and drawings, including a self-portrait from 1941 that served as the cover of a book about the artist. Her legacy survives mainly through these works and through the local memory that cares for them.