Ingrid Linnea Ruin was born Lignell in Helsinki in 1881 and grew up in a prominent Finnish-Swedish cultural environment. After her father's early death, she was adopted by Professor Waldemar Ruin, which gave her close connections to the intellectual and artistic circle that characterized Finnish cultural life around the turn of the century. She was also the half-sister of the philosopher Hans Ruin.

Ruin began her art studies at the Finnish Art Society's drawing school in Helsinki and then continued her education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. During the years 1903–1905, she studied with the Finnish master Albert Edelfelt, whose teaching gave her a solid academic foundation and a refined sense of light, color and compositi...