About the museum
The story of the Alte Nationalgalerie
The Alte Nationalgalerie is a temple-like building on Berlin's Museum Island, opened in 1876 to show the art of the nineteenth century.
It holds key works of German Romanticism, above all Caspar David Friedrich, together with Menzel, Böcklin and an early group of French Impressionists bought when they were still controversial.
The collection
The collection began with the 262 paintings that the banker Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener left to the King of Prussia in 1861. It now traces nineteenth-century art from Classicism and Romanticism to Impressionism and early Modernism.
Its Caspar David Friedrich room, Adolph Menzel's scenes of Prussian life and industry, and Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead are highlights, as are the French Impressionists bought by its bold director Hugo von Tschudi before the First World War.
At ArtLogia you can order 156 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 72 artists led by Caspar David Friedrich, Adolph von Menzel and Anselm Feuerbach.
- paintings to order
- 156
- artists
- 72
- art movements
- 8
- years covered
- 1780–1927
The building
The building, designed by Friedrich August Stüler and completed by Johann Heinrich Strack, looks like a Corinthian temple raised on a high base, with an equestrian statue of Frederick William IV at the top of its double staircase.
Masterpieces to see
The Monk by the SeaCaspar David Friedrich, 1800 · Hand-painted reproduction available
The Abbey in the OakwoodCaspar David Friedrich, 1809 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Isle of the DeadArnold Böcklin, 1883 · Hand-painted reproduction available
The Iron Rolling MillAdolph von Menzel, 1870 · Hand-painted reproduction available
In the ConservatoryÉdouard Manet, 1878 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Planning a visit
Museum Island has five museums; a day ticket covers them all, including the Pergamon and Neues Museum.
