Austrian Moravia: Gallery of Old Art

Austrian Moravia: Gallery of Old Art

The permanent exhibition of old art will present the most significant paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Brno City Museum until the end of the 19th century. It will provide an idea of the artistic works that Brno residents encountered in their time and how art developed in Brno during the Habsburg monarchy period.

The most important evidence of Brno painting before the Thirty Years' War is a collection of bourgeois pictorial epitaphs. Baroque sculpture is represented by the statues of Andreas Schweigl, the greatest Brno sculptor of the 18th century. All epitaphs and sculptures originally adorned the Church of St. James, from where they were removed during its Gothic Revival renovation in the 1870s.

Most of the paintings in the section dedicated to the 19th century have not been seen by visitors before, as they were hidden in storage. The exhibition features works by renowned Viennese painters, whom visitors to Brno exhibitions encountered (Tina Blau-Lang, Theodor Hörmann...), leading Moravian painters who achieved recognition beyond their homeland (Eugen Jettel, Eduard Kasparides, Hugo Charlemont...), as well as artists who linked their lives and artistic careers with Brno and its surroundings (Emil Pirchan, August Potuczek, Carl Maria Thuma...).