19.04.1850 – 16.02.1885

The son of the priest of the Kherson diocese himself, at the request of his father, preparing to become a priest, Sudkovsky accordingly got an education, studying first at the Ochakivs’ spiritual school, then at the Odessa theological seminary. But the priestly activity soon ceased to attract him. Already in his childhood, the ability to paint began to show up in him, and at an adolescent age, especially during his stay in Odessa, under the impression of the southern sea with its enchanting beauty, the artist finally woke up, and he became one of the most zealous visitors of the drawing school of the Odessa Society lovers of art.

Sudkovsky occupied an outstanding place among Russian artists. Undisputed talent and serious unceasing work on him promised Sudkovsky a glorious future, but his premature death did not come true to these expectations: he died on February 4, 1885, from typhus, at the age of less than 35 years, in the prime of life, without completing definitively as an artist, to realize the hopes that were placed on his talent. In the year of Sudkovsky’s death, his friends organized a posthumous exhibition of his works.

The total number of paintings Sudkovsky very significant, especially if you take into account the shortness of his artistic career. The best of them are: “Ochakiv Pier” (located in the Russian Museum), “Calm” (ibid.), “Daryal Gorge” (ibid.), “Night”, “Transparent Water”, “Stormy Sea”, “Calm” (in the Tretyakov Gallery), “Storm near Ochakov”, “Noon”, “Dawn before sunrise”, “There will be a storm at night”, “Kinburn spit after the rain”, “Dnieper girla”, “Catching herrings”, “Fight Vesta with Turkish monitor “.