The story
On a rampart of the old Vienna fortifications sits a Habsburg palace that holds one of the greatest collections of drawings and prints in the world. It carries the name of its founder, Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, a son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa, who began gathering works on paper in the 1770s.
The Albertina's fame rests on things it can rarely show. Albrecht Durer's watercolour of a young hare, painted in 1502, every whisker and hair alive, is so sensitive to light that the original appears only for brief spells. The same is true of his praying hands and his study of a great piece of turf, so most of the time you see superb facsimiles.
The palace has a second life as a painting gallery. Its state rooms, restored to their imperial gilding, now lead into the Batliner Collection, a permanent display of French and modern art that runs from Monet's water lilies through Picasso and Chagall.
