SIDOROV, ALEKSEY

From 1909 to 1913 he studied in the Department of Archeology and Art History of the History and Philology Faculty of the Moscow University. In 1913–1914 Sidorov continued his studies in Munich. He had a close connection with the Museum of Fine Arts since its foundation in 1912; he was the first to conduct guided tours in the Museum. After his return from Munich, he worked from 1914 to 1921 in the Museum of Fine Arts as a guide, a librarian and the head of Department of Christian art. From 1921 to 1927, he taught in the Moscow University, and from 1927 to 1936 he was the head of the Print Cabinet of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. It was during this time that the collection was divided into the departments of Russian prints and Foreign prints; he himself became the head of the Department of Foreign Prints, while Vladimir Adaryukov became the curator of the Russian prints, A. I. Aristova was entrusted with drawings and Vera Nevezhina was in charge of the library and the reading room. A print restoration workshop was created, directed by Vera Krylova; the reading room functioned, the exhibitions were organized as well as exchanges of drawings with foreign museums.

In 1936–1978, Sidorov worked in the All-Union Research Institute of Art History of the USSR Ministry of Culture, was a member of the Presidium of the History Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was the chairman of the All-Union Voluntary Society of Book Lovers.

He taught in the Moscow Lomonosov University, in the Moscow Institute of Architecture, in the Moscow Institute of Printing. Since 1960, he was the permanent member of editorial board of the Kniga collection.

He put together a large collection of Russian and Western graphic art and bookplates. His collection of bookplates was bought in 1969 by the State Lenin Library. It was also in 1969 that he donated his collection of Russian graphic art to the Tretyakov Gallery and his collection of Western drawings and prints of 15^th–20^th centuries to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

For many years, Sidorov was a major researcher of Western and Russian drawings. He directed the Print Cabinet and, in the same time, was the curator of German graphic art. He systematized German prints and made inventories, some of which continue to be used even nowadays. In 1928, he organized an anniversary exhibition of prints by Albrecht Dürer from the Museum collections and created a catalog is still important almost a century after its publication.

Sidorov wrote more than 500 works on Russian and Western art, mainly on graphic art and books. A list of his works can be found in: Кожин Н.А. и др. Алексей Алексеевич Сидоров. Москва, 1974 (Aleksey Alekseyevich Sidorov).