Rufin (Rufim) Gavrilovich Sudkovsky, born on April 7, 1850, in Ochakov, Kherson Province, and died there on February 4, 1885, was a renowned Russian marine painter and an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

The Sudkovsky family settled in Ochakov after the liberation of these lands from Turkish occupation. The founder of the family, father Dionisy, originally bore the surname Susidko, which was changed to 'Sudkovsky' with royal permission. Father Dionisy, Rufim's grandfather, became one of the first priests in Ochakov.

Rufin, the son of a priest of the Kherson diocese, was prepared for a spiritual career by his father's will and received the corresponding education. He studied at the Ochakov Theological School and then at the Odessa Theological Seminary. However, he soon lost interest in priestly activities. From childhood, he showed a talent for drawing, and in his youth, especially in Odessa, influenced by the southern sea, he became completely captivated by painting and actively attended the drawing school of the Odessa Society of Lovers of Art.

Having mastered the skills of working with pencil and brush, Sudkovsky enthusiastically began to draw from nature. Even in his youthful works, he displayed undeniable talent and a special love for marine landscapes. In 1868, without completing his studies at the seminary, he went to St. Petersburg and enrolled in the Academy of Arts. During three years of study, his landscape sketches received high praise, marked with large and small silver medals in 1870.