Rufin Gavrilovich Sudkovsky was born in the family of a priest in the city of Ochakov in 1850. At his father’s behest, Rufin Sudkovsky first studied at the Ochakov Theological School, and then at the Odessa Theological Seminary.

When he was still a child, he discovered an aptitude for drawing. He painted from life and showed great interest in marine themes.

At the age of 18, Rufin Sudkovsky traveled to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Academy of Arts. He studied there for three years, during which time he was awarded several silver medals for his landscape studies.

At the age of 21, Rufin Gavrilovich had to quit his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts and return to Ochakov to convalesce. The artist painted sketches of the Black Sea shores there and developed his observational skills and artistic technique.

From 1873, the artist lived permanently in Ochakov and worked extensively as a landscape and seascape painter. At the age of 24, he traveled around Europe, visited Germany and France. In 1879, the Imperial Academy of Arts awarded the artist a diploma with the title of class artist of the first degree for his paintings “Night on the Shore of the Dnieper Estuary”, “Storm” and “Autumn”.

At the age of 30 Rufin Gavrilovich visited Finland, the Balkans, Asia Minor, and traveled along the Caucasus and Dniester. On his return to his hometown, Rufin Sudkovsky created paintings commissioned by the Ministry of the Navy, including the icons “Walking on the Waters” and “The Nativity of Christ” for the Naval Cathedral.

In 1880 and 1881, the artist began to arrange exhibitions in Odessa, which is when his universal fame began to rise.

In 1882, the Imperial Academy of Arts awarded Rufin Sudkovsky the title of Academician for his painting “Storm near Ochakov”. The artist exhibited his works in St. Petersburg, Odessa and Moscow. Sudkovsky’s paintings were purchased from various exhibitions by the Imperial Academy of Arts and many patrons of the arts, such as Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov and Alexander Mikhailovich Dondukov-Korsakov.

The last exhibition of his paintings took place in Kiev in 1885. Rufin Gavrilovich contracted typhus there. He returned to Ochakov, where he died at the age of 34.