Sámal Joensen-Mikines

Who was Sámal Joensen-Mikines?

Sámuel Joensen-Mikines was a Faroese painter. He was the first recognised painter of the Faroe Islands and one of the Faroe Islands most important artists. Many of his paintings have been displayed on Faroese stamps.

Joensen-Mikines was never in doubt that he would be an artist, and his first inclination was to be musician and play the violin. But in the summer of 1924 the Swedish bird painter William Gislander visited the Faroe Islands for painting the enormous colonies of birds. Gislander was not a great artist, but for the young Joensen-Mikines he was the idol, whose steps he followed from the very beginning, and who let him make his first brush strokes with the remainders of paint that could squeeze out of Gislander's tubes. His paintings were inspired both by Edvard Munch and Eugène Delacroix, and his trend-setting art was decisive for the development of Faeroese art.

The most early works of Mikines are from the middle of the 1920s. He then painted in a fresh and naturalistic style with a precise representation of colour and motifs. He was asked by the author and artist William Heinesen to apply for the "Danske Kunstakademi", the Royal Danish Art Academy.