Prague Galleries
This is a guide to the main Prague galleries most of which come under the National Gallery collection. Generally each location caters to a different style or period.
The collection of the National Gallery is exhibited in six locations; the Sternberg Palace, St George's Convent, the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia, Veletrzni Palace, Zbraslav Castle and Kinsky Palace.
Sternberg Palace
Hradcanske namesti 15
Prague 1
Sternberg Palace is the main building of the National Gallery, exhibiting European art from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries except for works by Czech artists, which are housed in St George's Convent. The collection includes a fine selection of master works by artists including Holbein, Durer, Bruegel, Rubens, van Dyck, El Greco, Goya, Gaugin, van Gogh, Picasso and Braque. Don't be surprised if the gallery staff stay unusually close to you if you take children with you.
St Georges Convent (Klaster sv. Jiri)
Jirske namesti 33
Prague 1 (the Prague Castle)
St George's Convent gallery exhibits early Czech art; Bohemian paintings and sculpture from the Middle Ages to 1800. The collection includes Gothic panel paintings by the Master of the Vyssi Brod Altar, Magister Theodorik, and Master of the Altar of Trebon, the Gothic sculpture of the Master of the Mourning from Zebrak, baroque sculpture and paintings by Skreta, Kupecky, Rainer, Brokoff and Braun and Rudolphine works by Hans von Aachen, Joseph Heintz, Bartolomeus Spranger and Adrian de Vries.
St Agnes Convent
U Milosrdnych 17
Prague 1
A continuation of the exhibition in St George's Convent, the Convent of St Agnes features nineteenth-century Czech art, mainly in nationalist and neo-Gothic styles. Lots of religious paintings.
Trade Fair Palace - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
(Veletrzni palac - Muzeum moderniho a soucasneho umeni)
Dukelskych hrdinu 47
Prague 7
Veletrzni Palac (next to the Park Hotel) a vast Constructivist masterpiece built in the mid-1920s which then burned down in 1974 and was replaced with a "functional" (for functional read communist shoebox) building, which provides an appropriate setting for the Modern art works inside. It reopened after further renovation in 1995 (they didn't get around to changing the doors by the looks of it). The exhibition features a huge selection of twentieth-century Czech art, as well as many superb European works from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. If you like sculpture then take the lift to the 5th floor and work your way down. If modern paintings are your thing then get off at the 3rd Floor. First and Third floors have the permanent exhibition of really modern art. Second floor has half it's space given over for temporary exhibitions. Generally the first Wednesday in the month is free but, occasionally you'll find the odd Saturday is free as well. Last time I went a family ticket was 200kc, Adult was 140kc (Free cloakroom, no cameras allowed in the halls). Worth the money if you like modern art. It has a good collection of original plans of many Prague buildings. Cafe is open all the time but, the restaurant is closed at weekends. As with the Sternberk, the gallery staff get nervous when children are around. No.17 and no.5 trams pass right outside the front door (17 is from the National Theatre, 5 is from Namesti Republiky).
Zbraslav Castle
Ke Krnovu 2
Prague 5
Zbraslav Castle houses the non-European art collection of the National Gallery which generally means Arabic and Asian. Often some of the pieces here spend time at the Contemporary Art Gallery listed above. Here you'll find more paintings, at the Contemporary Gallery they go more for the sculpture and furniture pieces. You can get a bus here from outside of the Smichov Train station. Bus service or a Taxi to the castle would be about 400kc.
Kinsky Palace
Staromestske namesti 12
Prague 1
The Kinsky Palace overlooks the Jan Hus monument in the Old Town Square and contains the Prints and Drawings Collection and the National Gallery information centre. I call this the "dark picture place" i.e. not being one to fully appreciate art that is primarily black with half a face staring out at you.
Museum of Fine Arts
Husova 19-21
Prague 1
Formerly the Mid-Bohemian Gallery, the Czech Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1963 as a regional gallery. It was originally housed in Nelahozeves Castle near Prague, relocating into three sympathetically restored baroque buildings on Husova Street in the Old Town district of Prague in 1971. The museum hosts temporary exhibitions of twentieth-century Czech art as well as retrospectives of foreign artists.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday - 10:00 am to noon and 1:00 pm to 6 pm
Prague Castle Galleries
Gallery I - Prague Castle
Gallery II - U Prasneho mostu
Prague 1
The collection of the Prague Castle Gallery I contains around 400 paintings and drawings from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. A few works survive from the legendary collection of Rudolph II, but most were lost as spoils of war during the seventeenth century, moved to Vienna or sold - either to the Saxons or in the 'Josephine' auction of 1782.
Regarded as the most valuable paintings in the collection are Titian's Toilet of a Young Lady, Tintoretto's Flagellation of Christ and Rubens's The Assembly of the Olympic Gods. There are other major works by artists including Hans von Aachen, Domenico Fetti, Bartolomeo Spranger, Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Bassano.
Gallery II holds temporary exhibitions, but also has a small permanent exhibition of pieces from the reign of Rudolph II.
Opening hours:
Gallery I - Tuesday to Sunday - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Gallery II - Tuesday to Sunday - 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
City Gallery
Staromestske namesti 12
Prague 1
Housed in the beautiful fourteenth-century Old Town Hall, the City Gallery Prague (GHMP) exhibits work from its permanent collection of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with regular special exhibitions of working artists, focusing on international contemporary trends.
The permanent collection of sculpture, painting and graphics includes the work of Alfons Mucha, Jaroslav Cermak, Vaclav Brozik, Emil Filla, Josef Vaclav Myslbek, Ladislav Saloun, Jaroslav Horejc and Frantisek Bilek.
Opening hours:
April to September: Tuesday to Sunday - 9am to 6pm
October to March: Tuesday to Sunday - 9am to 5pm
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