National Gallery in Prague

Where to admire art

The collections of the National Gallery have travelled throughout Old Prague over the centuries. Today, the National Gallery is housed in several buildings and palaces in the centre of Prague – the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia, Sternberg Palace, Schwarzenberg Palace, Salm Palace, Kinský Palace, Trade Fair Palace, and short-term exhibitions are also organised by the National Gallery in the Wallenstein Riding School, which belongs to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

Medieval art in Bohemia and central Europe 1200⁠-1550

You will find this permanent collection in the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia in Old Town. The collection exhibition, located on the floor of this monastery complex, displays more than two hundred paintings and sculptures spanning over three centuries. The oldest works from this exhibition come from the reign of the Přemyslids, a dynasty to which the founder of the local monastery, Czech Princess St Anežka Česká, known as St Agnes of Bohemia, belonged. You will see the best works of Czech medieval artists including Master Theodoric or the Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece. There are also works by Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Hesse and Lucas Cranach the Elder. If you are interested in medieval art, be sure to visit here.

Old masters

This collection exhibition consists of two parts. The first one is located in Schwarzenberg Palace in Hradčany and represents a selection of the most important masterpieces from the collection of so-called old art. There are works by such masters as Hans von Aachen, Petr Brandl, Matthias Bernard Braun, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Francisco José Goya and Karel Škréta. The basic time frame spans the period from the 16th to the 18th century. The second part of the exhibition is also in Hradčany in the nearby Sternberg Palace, which presents old masters in other contexts. Here you will find a collection of Italian paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries or an installation of Renaissance and Baroque painting. Extraordinary collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 15th to the 18th century are also represented here, including painters such as Brueghel, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.

1796⁠-1918: Art of the Long Century

This very interesting collection exhibition is located in the Trade Fair Palace in Holešovice, Prague. However, this so-called "long century" is in this context understood here a little differently. The beginning of the exhibition is not connected with the events of the French Revolution, but with the establishment of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art on 5 February 1796, in Prague, whose activities were crucial for the development of fine arts in today's Czech Republic. The exhibition thus shows what the National Gallery has gathered in the broad context of time during its more than twenty-two years of existence. The final selection represents more than four hundred and fifty works by 150 authors in three main chapters: Man, World and Ideas. The exhibition includes both paintings and sculptures. Artists with contrasting artistic views and different generations, such as Alfons Mucha in contrast with Pablo Picasso, appear side by side at the exhibition. The current exposition also includes two graphic cabinets, where the collections of the Collection of Prints and Drawings are exhibited.

1918⁠-1938: First Republic

This collection exhibition, which can also be found in the Trade Fair Palace, was created in 2018 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic and presents numerous artistic works of the young state before World War II. In addition to paintings and sculptures by leading Czech, Slovak, Czech-German and Carpatho-Rusyn artists such as Václav Špála, Josef Čapek, Toyen, August Brӧmse and Maxim Kopf, the exhibition also includes works from the French collection, which Czechoslovakia bought shortly after its founding in the 1920s and 30s. It includes works by artists such as Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau and Vincent van Gogh.

Time-limited exhibitions

The National Gallery also organises time-limited exhibitions. Most of them take place in the Trade Fair Palace, which is the largest in terms of area, in the Wallenstein Riding School in Malá Strana, or in Kinský Palace in Old Town Square. Dozens of both small and large-scale exhibitions open every year, of which several are prominent, and they are created in cooperation with other world galleries. These time-limited exhibitions also present collections of modern and contemporary art as well as collections of Asian art.