Sobko N.P. (1851-1906), art historian

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
SOBKO Nikolay Petrovich (1851, Tsarskoe Selo - 1906, St. Petersburg), art historian and bibliographer. He was educated at home. From 1871 to 1884, he worked at the Imperial Public Library. In 1884, he was appointed a secretary of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, a position he held until 1900. During his tenure he wrote Concise Historical Outline of the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, 1839-1889 (St. Petersburg, 1889) and Concise Historical Outline of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, 1820-1890 (St. Petersburg, 1890). From 1898 to 1902, he edited the Iskusstvo i Khudozhestvennaya Promyshlennost (Art and the Artistic Industry) journal. He collected various bibliographical materials on the history of Russian art, his principal work within this activity being The Dictionary of Russian Artists from the Earliest Times to the Present (Vol. 1-3, 1893-99, was not completed). Sobko's card index is stored in the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Russia. He also popularised the art of peredvizhniki (travelling artists also known as the wandering artists), compiled catalogues and indices of their exhibitions and published a number of works on I.N. Kramskoy, G.G. Myasoedov and V.G. Perov. He lived at 38 Morskaya Street (1897-99, 1904), 83 Moika River Embankment (1900) and 13 Pochtamtskaya Street (1903, 1905). Sobko was buried at Novodevichye cemetery.

References: Острой О. С. Вольнотрудящийся Н. П. Собко // Историко-библиографические исследования. СПб., 1995. Вып. 5. С. 5-28.

O. L. Leykind, D.Y. Severyukhin. Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich
Myasoedov Grigory Grigorievich
Perov Vasily Grigorievich
Sobko Nikolay
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 83
Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 38
Pochtamtskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 13
Russian National Library
Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
Novodevichye Cemetery