The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts

Netherlandish, Dutch, and Flemish art formed a highly valued part of the collection assembled by Bohdan (1849–1917) and Varvara Khanenko (1852–1922), whose dedication to European art defined the scope and quality of what is now the National Museum of Arts bearing their names. Khanenko consulted art historians, notably Abraham Bredius, who visited his Kyiv mansion in 1897 and documented his collection in two notebooks (now at the RKD). In 1925, the museum was further enriched by the bequest of Vasilij Schavinskij (1868–1924), adding significant Dutch and Flemish paintings and prints.

Today, the collection comprises around 160 paintings dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It includes works by major Netherlandish and Flemish masters such as the Workshop of Jheronimus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel I, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Frans Francken II, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Jan Weenix, among others. Highlights include the Adoration of the Magi by the Master of the Khanenko Adoration and portraits attributed to Marie Duchatel and Jan Boeckhorst.

Beyond its paintings, the museum preserves an important collection of nearly 700 Netherlandish prints, including works by Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Hendrick Goltzius, Adriaen van Ostade, Hendrick Avercamp, Roelant Savery, Karel Dujardin, and Abraham Bloemaert.

The collection also includes thirteen seventeenth-century portrait miniatures. Highlights include a portrait of Maria Anna of Neuburg, attributed to Marie Duchatel, and a remarkable portrait of Leopold I on vellum in a golden frame after Jan Boeckhorst.

Decorative arts from the Low Countries comprise Dutch and Flemish faience, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Flemish tapestries, a small group of wooden sculptures, including works by Jan van Steffeswert and Jan Baptist Xavery. The collection also includes three stained-glass pieces, including the monumental Pentecost (1540) from the pilgrimage church of St. Stephen in ‘s Herenelderen.

Olena Zhivkova, Curator of Paintings; Olena Kramareva, Curator of Decorative Arts; Olena Shostak, Curator of Prints and Drawings; Anastasiia Matselo, Curator of Sculpture; Mariana Varchuk, Curator of Portrait Miniatures (July 2026)