ALTE NATIONALGALERIE

Description

Essentials about the Alte Nationalgalerie in brief

The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) is one of the most famous art museums in Berlin and the parent building of the Nationalgalerie (National Gallery), whose collection is spread across other buildings. Built between 1867 and 1876 in the style of late classicism and neo-Renaissance, the imposing building is reminiscent of an ancient temple. It belongs to the ensemble of the Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and is thus part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The history of the Alte Nationalgalerie

The reason for the construction of a National Gallery was the donation of the banker and consul Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, who had bequeathed his collection of works by Caspar David Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the Düsseldorf School of Painting and Belgian history painting to the Prussian state in his will and died in 1861. Wagener wished to present the collection to the public “in a suitable venue” and to develop it into a national gallery. In 1876, the Nationalgalerie was finally ceremoniously opened as the third museum on the Spree Island.

The collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie

On display in the Alte Nationalgalerie are works of Classicism, Romanticism, Biedermeier, Impressionism, and early Modernism, including works by Édouard Manet, Caspar David Friedrich, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.