In Viljandi, on June 30, 1908, the little Lydia was born to the family of Maria and Peeter Nirk. Her older siblings were Nadja, Tiina, Boris and Sergei. Kiira was born later.
Although father Peeter made his living as a carter and mother Maria as a governess, they were able to help their children to acquire good education. During 1928 -1936 Lydia studied at art school Pallas, at the studios of Villem Ormisson and Ado Vabbe. Very soon the artwork of Lydia Nirk found its way to annual exhibitions of the Estonian Artists’ Association in Tallinn.
In 1949, the year of March deportation of Estonians by the Soviets, Lydia Nirk-Soosaar was expelled from the Artists’ Association of Soviet Estonia as a bourgeois nationalist. From 1970’s Lydia’s poetic landscapes found their way again to the annual exhibitions of Estonian art in Tallinn. Solo exhibitions followed in Viljandi, Haapsalu, Pärnu and Tallinn. The Artists’ Association accepted their lost daughter in 1990. Lydia Nirk-Soosaar joined the heaven-scapes in March 1995.
