Minnie reinhardt folk artist biography death

Minnie reinhardt folk artist biography death: Minnie Smith Reinhardt (–) was

One of eleven children, she helped out on the family farm from an early age. She also attended school, where she was able to draw. Aged about eighteen, she took a position as a cook at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory. There she performed numerous housekeeping duties; she also learned to sew, which she would do for people around the county.

She also helped out in the fields, and raised the six children she had with Belton Reinhardt. By Reinhardt's vision had become so reduced by cataracts that she was unable to distinguish shapes and colors. Surgery restored her sight, and the experience pushed her to begin painting once more, using oil paints given to her by her daughter Arie Taylor.

As a painter she was entirely self-taught. Her works depict a variety of daily activities remembered from her youth. She painted daily at a small desk in front of a window in her home, and was extremely prolific before her death. Her husband made frames for many of her finished paintings. Reinhardt was the subject of an exhibit at the Hickory Museum of Art in