Vadim Sadkov, born in Serpukhov, Russia, in 1953. Ph.D. from the Repin Art Institute, Leningrad. Curator of Dutch and Flemish Drawings and Head of the Department of European and American Art at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Professor of Art History at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow.
Visiting Grant Scholar (Fall 2005)
CATALOGUE OF DUTCH AND FLEMISH DRAWINGS FROM THE 16th TO THE 20th CENTURY, PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
In 2001, a scholarly catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Drawings of the XVIth – XXth Centuries in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, was published. In fact, the manuscript of the catalogue was finished earlier, in 1993 when I stayed in the CASVA, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C as a Mellon Guest Scholar. The collection, as catalogued, consisted of 621 drawings that are important and representative for the History of Dutch and Flemish Art. Since 1983 I have made a thorough study of the drawings which led to the discovery of, for example, hitherto unknown works by Dirck Pietersz. Crabeth, Otto van Veen, Tobias Verhaecht, Denis van Alsloot, Jacob van Swanenburgh, Pieter Lastman, Gerrit Pietersz., Aert de Gelder, Gerard Ter Borch Sr. I also came to different conclusion about authorship of many drawings starting with the Antwerp master from the begining of XVIth century (so-called ‘Pseudo-Bles’) to Cornelis Troost and Jacob Cats from the XVIIIth century.
Now about 12 years later, I am preparing my catalogue for translation and publication into English. During my stay at NIAS, I had the opportunity to study various comparative materials (photographs, archives files, catalogues of sales etc.) housed in the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague and the Instituut Neerladais (Fondation Custodia) in Paris. Also I checked my ideas and approaches in the context of modern scholarship particularly recent literature that is not available in Russia.As a result, I often reconsidered my previous opinions about attributions and dates of some drawings.