The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, which manages the largest collection of art in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine art in permanent and temporary exhibitions. The collections of the gallery are not housed in a single building, but are presented in a number of historic structures within the city of Prague, as well as other places. The largest of the gallery sites is the Trade Fair Palace (''Veletržní Palác''), which houses the National Gallery's collection of modern art. Other important exhibition spaces are located in the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia, the Kinský Palace, the Salm Palace, the Schwarzenberg Palace, the Sternberg Palace, and the Wallenstein Riding School. Founded in 1796, it is one of the world's oldest public art galleries and one of the largest museums in

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the ...

History

The history of the National Gallery dates back to the end of the 18th century (namely February 5, 1796), when a group of prominent representatives of Bohemian patriotic aristocracy ( Kolowrat, Sternberg, Nostitz) and middle-class intellectuals decided to elevate what they called the "debased artistic taste" of the local population. The institution, which received the title Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts, established the Academy of Fine Arts and the Picture Gallery. In 1918 the Picture Gallery became a central collection of newly formed

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In 1995 new spaces dedicated to 19th- and 20th-century art were opened in the refurbished Veletržní Palác (Trade Fair Palace), itself a national monument as Prague's largest functionalist building and one of the earliest examples of that architectural style in the city (construction began in 1925). St George's Convent (Hradčany) was formerly used to display Art of the Middle Ages in Bohemia and Central Europe, baroque art, and the 19th-century art of Bohemia.

The collections

Old Masters

* Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia (

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

) – Art of the Middle Ages in Bohemia and Central Europe * Šternberk Palace (

Hradčany Hradčany (; german: Hradschin), the Castle District, is the district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic surrounding Prague Castle. The castle is one of the biggest in the world at about in length and an average of about wide. Its history ...

) – European Art from Antiquity to the end of the Baroque period * Schwarzenberg palace (Hradčany) – Baroque in Bohemia

19th-Century Art

* Salm Palace (

)

Modern and Contemporary Art

* Veletržní palác (Trade Fair Palace), Holešovice – 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century art, the National Gallery's largest collection. Since 2012 Alfons Mucha's

Slav Epic ''The Slav Epic'' ( cs, Slovanská epopej) is a cycle of 20 large canvases painted by Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha between 1910 and 1928. The cycle depicts the mythology and history of Czechs and other Slavic peoples. In 1928, af ...

has been on display here. :The international collection includes numerous works by artists such as

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is kn ...

, Monet,

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, Rodin,

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...

, Cézanne,

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

Schiele Schiele may refer to: * Armand Schiele (born 1967), French Alpen skier * Bernt Schiele (born 1968), German computer scientist * Egon Schiele (1890, Tulln an der Donau – 1918, Vienna), Austrian painter ** ''Egon Schiele – Exzess und Bestrafung' ...

, Munch, Miró and Klimt; many of these are donations from the collection of art historian Vincenc Kramář. :Picasso, who has a spacious room to himself in the gallery, has two self-portraits there, and two of his nudes in addition to more abstract work. Works by Rodin, whose exhibition in Prague in the early 20th century had a profound impact on Czech sculpture for many years afterwards, include a series of busts and full-sized figure on a variety of subjects in the gallery. :The vast collection contains a large number of Czech and Slovak paintings and sculptures, including works by

Alfons Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorat ...

Otto Gutfreund Otto Gutfreund (3 August 1889 – 2 June 1927) also written Oto Gutfreund, was a Czechoslovak sculptor. After studying art in Prague and Paris, he became known in the 1910s for his sculptures in a cubist style. After his service in the First World ...

, František Kupka,

T. F. Šimon T is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet. (For the same letterform in the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, see Te and Tau respectively). T may also refer to: Codes and units * T, Tera- as in one trillion * T, the symbol for "True" in lo ...

, Tavik Frantisek Simon (1877-1942),

Rudolf Fila Rudolf Fila (19 July 1932 Příbram na Morave, Czechoslovakia - 11 February 2015 Bratislava, Slovakia) was a Slovak painter, educator and author, best known for his artistic reinterpretations of the works of Gustav Klimt. He resided in Bratislav ...

Vincenc Beneš Vincenc Beneš (22 January 1883 – 27 March 1979) was a Czech painter. Early life and education Beneš was born in Lišice, Hradec Králové. He studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague from 1902 to 1904 and the Acade ...

and Bohumil Kubišta. Along with the Black Madonna House and the Museum Kampa, the Trade fair palace collection is one of the most notable collections of

Czech Cubism Czech Cubism (referred to more generally as Cubo-Expressionism) was an avant-garde art movement of Czechs, Czech proponents of Cubism, active mostly in Prague from 1912 to 1914. Prague was perhaps the most important center for Cubism outside Pari ...

in Prague. Notable works include ''Don Quixote'' by Gutfreund, ''Military Funeral'' by Beneš, an array of paintings by Kupka, covering almost all of the styles with which he experimented. * House of the Black Madonna (Old Town) – Czech Cubism

Graphics Collection

* Kinský Palace (Old Town)

Oriental Art

* Kinský Palace (Old Town) – Art of Asia and Art of the Ancient World

On display outside Prague

* Kinský castle Žďár nad Sázavou – Baroque Art from the Collections of the National Gallery in Prague *

Fryštát Fryštát (; pl, Frysztat ; german: Freistadt ; Cieszyn Silesian: ) is an administrative part of the city of Karviná in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. Until 1948 it was a separate town. It lies on the Olza River, in the h ...

castle in

Karviná Karviná (; pl, Karwina, , german: Karwin) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 50,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Olza River in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. Karviná is known as an indust ...

– 19th-century Czech art from the Collections of the National Gallery in Prague

Gallery

References

External links

*
Collections of NGPNational Gallery Prague
within

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{Authority control 1796 establishments in the Habsburg Monarchy 1796 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 18th-century establishments in Bohemia Art museums and galleries in the Czech Republic Museums in Prague