The exhibition 1796⁠–⁠1918: Art of the Long Century purposefully and naturally connects Czech and international art. Unlike the preceding permanent exhibitions at the National Gallery Prague, the artworks on display do not include any loans from other museums and galleries filling the gaps in the collections. The project does not seek to present another art historical review and re-codify key artworks produced in the Czech Lands in the 19th century. Such approach necessarily neglects the works, which were purchased for or donated to the National Gallery Prague from other European regions and also had a major influence on the local situation and development on the art scene. Instead, the exhibition shows what the National Gallery Prague has amassed in the course of its more than 220-year-long history in the broad context. Therefore, the artists are naturally represented in an uneven manner ⁠–⁠ with compact and representative sets on one hand, and more or less haphazardly acquired or occasional acquisitions on the other.

The resulting selection shows more than 450 artworks by 150 artists in three major chapters: Man, The World and Ideas. The exhibition presents painting as well as sculpture. Free sculpture is accompanied by paintings. Public sculpture forms a separate section paraphrasing three basic themes in the sections of Architecture, Monument and Tombstone with respect to a selected approach and availability of the exhibits.

Therefore, the artists of different art opinions and very different generations can be seen at the exhibition side by side, such as Josef Mánes next to Pablo Picasso, Josef Navrátil next to Bohumil Kubišta or Antonio Canova next to Franz von Stuck. The exhibition’s thematic division made it possible to subdivide it into many small subgroups of artworks representing independent sections ranging from self-portraits, family and official portraits to paintings of cafés, lively city boulevards, spring landscapes, mountain lakes or artworks with religious or mythological themes.

Authors and curators: Veronika Hulíková (NGP), Otto M. Urban, Filip Wittlich

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