Open for 230 years

On February 5, 1796, the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art was founded, which soon established the Picture Gallery, the predecessor of today's National Gallery Prague. A selection of seventeen archival photographs will present milestones in its 230-year history of presenting art collections. The images show how the Picture Gallery and later the National Gallery Prague gradually made its collections accessible to the public.

The photographs recall exhibitions in the Rudolfinum and the Municipal Library, but also in the Šternberský palác, which has been home to the Collection of Old Masters for almost eighty years, and is also connected with the oldest history of the Picture Gallery. They capture exhibitions of the National Gallery Prague at Zbraslav Castle (from 1940 to 2009) or in the Kinský Palace. They also reflect its modern history in the St. George's Convent (where it presented its collections from 1976–2000), in the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, in the Veletržní palác, and most recently also in the Schwarzenberský and Salmovský Palaces.

Curator: Martina Jandlová Sošková

Venue: the Korzo space adjacent to the piazzetta