Additional information from Mr. Sudy's obituary:
Sudy, Wildlife Artist, Dies Easton, Md., Jan. 7-John Sudy, soldier, artist and linguist, died today at Easton Memorial Hospital. The 80-year-old painter of marine and wildlife was hospitalized yesterday for what appeared to be a virus attack. Death was attributed to complications. Mr. Sudy was born just outside Prague in what was then the Province of Bohemia of the Austrian Empire but now is a part of Czechoslovakia. His mother was Suzan Ponyatovsky, a well-known artist.
Art Student At Age 9
Mr. Sudy began his art studies in Berlin at the age of 9 and at the outbreak of World War I was painting in Rome. When Bohemia, as part of the Austrian empire, went to war against Russia, Mr. Sudy became a captain in the infantry. His outfit was captured in the early fighting and was shipped to an internment camp in Siberia. As the only officer in the camp, Mr. Sudy led a mass escape of 2,300 prisoners. From Siberia the group started marching westward and two years later Mr. Sudy and four other survivors of the original group arrived in Turkey.
A Fist For A Russian
Until his death Mr. Sudy maintained there was only one diplomatic way to handle a Russian-apply a fist to the point of his chin. "When you do that," he said, "Ivan immediately understands what you are driving at and gets down to business." After reaching Turkey in his escape from the Russians, Mr. Sudy painted pictures of veiled dancing girls for sale to British sailors and eventually made enough money to finance a trip to the United States in 1921.
Wildlife Paintings
It was on the Eastern Shore that Mr. Sudy began studying and painting wildlife. His works are now in private collections in this country and in Europe. He never put much stock in the opinion of art critics. "When I want criticism, I go to the boys who hunt duck," he once said. "They know what a duck looks like and how it lands or rises from the water. What does the average art critic know about ducks anyway?" Mr. Sudy at one time spoke 29 languages, but admitted in his later years that he had become rusty in a few of them. He numbered among his close friends such financial greats a J. Pierpont Morgan, John J. Raskob and George M. Offett. These are no immediate survivors. Funeral arrangements were incomplete