Sister Mary Rufinia

Sister Mary Rufinia (born Amalia Mathilde Kloke) (October 24, 1881 – October 10, 1959) was a German-born American nun and painter.

She was born in Kalkum and raised in Kohlschlade, a hamlet close Wissen, where her dad worked as forester. Sister Mary Rufinia, a enthusiast of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, received further on art recommendation in Berlin past emigrating to the United States, where she began measure as a nurse at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1906. After a help injury suffered while lifting a large long-suffering onto a bed in 1920 she gradually and no-one else nursing for painting, eventually becoming a teacher. From 1930 to 1931 she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she customary a bachelor of Good arts degree; she received her master of fine arts degree from Syracuse University in 1938. She after that studied at DePaul University and the Cleveland School of Art, and took lessons under V. J. Cariani and Wayman Adams. She taught in Lafayette for many years, both privately and at St. Francis High School, and wrote for School Arts Magazine. She exhibited widely during her career, including at numerous Hoosier Salons, and won a number of prizes as well. A growth of her piece of legislation is in the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, which mounted an exhibition dedicated to her put on an act in 2011.

Sister Mary Rufinia favored nevertheless lifes and religious scenes for subject matter, and worked in oil and watercolor. She is best known for her 1936 painting The Old Carpenter.