The National Gallery Prague and the Bohemian Heritage Fund prepared an interactive virtual tour of the exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century which includes some of the most important works in the collections of the Gallery.

The virtual tour is free and can be accessed via the National Gallery Prague website.

This permanent exhibition was newly arranged by curators Otto M. Urban, Veronika Hulíková, and Filip Wittlich and opened in mid-November last year. 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century is an exhibition which intentionally and naturally associates Czech art with the international art arranging it to thematic blocks in which the works interact with each other. The exhibition thus presents artists of not only dissimilar artistic views, but also representatives of totally different generations, such as Josef Mánes next to Pablo Picasso, Josef Navrátil next to Bohumil Kubišta or Antonio Canova next to Franz von Stuck.

“Our objective was not to create yet another art historical canon which would newly codify fundamental works of the 19th century created on the territory of Czech lands. Such an approach would inevitably miss out works acquired to the collection by purchases or donations from other European regions which also had a principal impact on the local situation and development of the art scene. The exhibition thus shows what the National Gallery Prague collected in its more than 220-year existence within a wide context,” describes Veronika Hulíková, one of the curators of the exhibition.

The Bohemian Heritage Fund and the National Gallery Prague have decided to make the exhibition accessible to the public at the time of pandemic when all galleries and other institutions are shut down. “The current times, unfavorable for the culture, require new engagement, creativity, and seeking new opportunities to help the culture survive. Our idea was to enable people experience this exceptionally high-quality exhibition at least to the extent allowed by the online environment. We have contacted virtual reality experts and recorded the exhibition in the manner used by all renowned galleries in the world; that is truly professionally,” explains Lenka Lindaurová, Artistic Director of the Bohemian Heritage Fund that funded the virtual tour.

“In this situation, we naturally try to move as many of our activities as possible to the online world. We engage with our visitors and supporters on social media and keep them informed. We want to stay open to them. The shut down of the exhibition premises has inspired us to speed up the development of our online activities. We have prepared new formats and we are looking for new ways to deliver quality content. Cooperation with the Bohemian Heritage Fund has opened one of such ways for us. The 360° virtual tour is a premier for us!” says Anne-Marie Nedoma, General Director of the National Gallery Prague.

The virtual tour can be accessed via the National Gallery Prague website. It enables the audience to experience a 360° walk through the whole exhibition while interacting with selected core works that can be viewed in detail with more information about them available.